The World And Its Problems
by Magickwalker
Summary: He was sat on the floor. 'Are you joking? We just killed her.' Dean smirked, 'And I'm so glad that I get to do it again.' He cocked his rifle. Two Hunters from England chase a key to one of the seals, and tag-team it with the Winchester boys. R
1. A Bloody Trail

It had been a bloody trail that had led them this far. Five Hunters, two of them friends, had made up the map. England wasn't a big place, but it had history, and with history comes the Supernatural. Ghosts were near commonplace in the old country, and demons had been on its shores since before the word of Christ had arrived in the dress of Roman preachers. Thus, England, along with Wales and Scotland, had more than its share of Hunters, all of whom were normally quite busy.

Word travelled quickly, it always did amongst Hunters. Few things would travel faster amongst them than news of a Hunter-killer.

The last death had been William Evans, a fifty-something anti-social hermit in Derbyshire. He'd been close to figuring it out. The wards on his floor were set against a specific type of demon. By the time they had arrived though, the congealed blood and intestines had smeared too much away for them to be sure which kind. Even if they could have figured out whom William thought he was fighting off, his body was strewn across his dining room. Whether he was caught outside the circle, or simply torn from it they couldn't tell. His heart too, had been missing, just like all the others.

The closest Hunter to them was Nel Cooper. She was a little older than William, but as far as anyone could tell she was the only friend the hermit had had.

Nel was set in her ways; she'd write a letter rather than an email, face-to-face rather than over the phone, the hairs on the back of your neck rather than an EMF detector. Hence, the chances of Nel answering her phone were always slim, so her airwave silence was nothing unusual.

It didn't do anything to ease their minds though.

Nel lived in Staffordshire, just south of Derbyshire, but not quite in the Midlands. Her village was getting quite large, but she lived on the outskirts by the fields, just far enough to get away with her eccentricities and odd habits many Hunters take to.

They stood by the gate to her garden. It was painted bright red; a lavender bush grew thick and full by its side. Nel's house was the stereotype of the country cottage. Just after twilight the thatch looked grey, but they both new that come the morning it would be a golden yellow. The white of the walls were criss-crossed with the blackened timber that supported the house. The front door had a small painted-glass window set into the front: a pig looking over a gate.

There was a single light on in the house, but no sound.

A woman set herself on her haunches by the lock. Picking a lock was never as simple as television shows made it look. The lock on Nel's front door was much newer than anything in the house. Flicking her long black hair over her shoulder, she set the tension tool and pushed a raked steel pick into the lock. After a few minutes of feeling around, gently pressing, and restarting as she pressed a Mushroom, the door clicked open. Gently pushing the door, it stopped dead. It was difficult to pick open a bolt fastened on the other side of the door.

She rested her head against the door and swore quietly.

She looked over at her partner; he was stood ten feet to her left in the middle of what looked like a bush of Hyacinths. He looked a little sheepish as he held open an old window that he'd managed to jimmy open with a stick from the garden.

She shook her head as she quietly made her way to him. The window lead into the kitchen, some unidentifiable herbs were hung from the ceiling, drying.

The two of them managed to climb into the kitchen without making too much noise. All seemed calm in the house. He pulled the window shut behind him; he'd had some difficulty getting 6 foot 2 inches of him through the small window and had knocked the old windowsill a little out of place. He went to push the old windowsill back when he stopped. He tapped her on the arm and pointed to the gap between the unfixed windowsill and the frame. Beneath the old wood, running from one side of the window frame to the other was salt, hidden beneath the old windowsill.

The dark haired women pulled a sword from the sheath on her back. It was a long Katana, traces of silver twisted down the blade. She led the way, her tall partner walking a few paces behind her. She heard the click of a clip being slid into his small handgun.

They made their way slowly around the ground floor. The furniture was old and mismatched, but everything was perfectly clean.

Their careful steps eventually brought them to the closed door, artificial light coming from underneath it. She moved so that she was closest to the handle and motioned for her partner to take the other side. She mouthed 'on three', then the numbers 'one, two'.

On what would have been three she flung the door open and span into the room. Graceful and deadly, she held her pose in the lit room.

The television was off. The furniture in this room was just as mismatched, but not as clean. Blood had splattered the chintz, tartan and floral fabrics. Blood ran in small rivers through the grains in the stone floor, and matted into the furry rug.

Nel lay on the floor, face down. Her skull had been smashed open on the grey slabs. There was a gaping hole in her back, a space where her heart should have been.

A few feet away from Nel, her cold heart in his hands, he stood on the blood-soaked rug.

He wore faded jeans and a nondescript white t-shirt, a worn leather jacket over the top. If she'd have walked passed him in the street, he would have looked like any other, apart from the darkness of his eyes.

He smiled.

'Ah, a few seconds too late I'm afraid.' He said. His tone was conversational, as if he was referring to a missed bus.

She flexed her legs and grasped the handle of her Katana with two hands. The demon smirked.

'I've taken the hearts of six Hunters. You really aren't going to accomplish much here, accept perhaps getting you both killed.' He looked at her, contemplating.

'I'm feeling generous.' He continued suddenly, having come to a decision. 'I like this body; I'd prefer not to have to get another one because Wannabe-Ninja Barbie fancies herself a hero.

'Take yourself and Ken elsewhere, and let's call it a day.'

She felt a hand on her shoulder. Over her shoulder, her partner was smiling; he'd put his gun away.

'I think we'll stay for awhile if that's all the same to you.' He said. He walked over to Nel's body and touched her wrist.

'Interesting.' He said. He stared at the ceiling for a while before wandering back to where his partner stood, her sword still raised.

The demon was scowling at them both.

'I don't think you understand how nice I'm being. If you don't leave, I'm going to rip your intestines out through your mouth. Poor old Will didn't seem to fond of that, although, you couldn't really understand what he was screaming.' He growled out. The sword flinched a little towards the demon.

'I'm sure he didn't. I'm also sure that he got word to Nel that you were coming. Surprised you didn't she?' He asked the demon.

'Tom, what's going on?' She asked him without taking her eyes of the demon.

'Nel's cold. She's been dead for a while, long enough for the blood to matt into the rug.' Tom replied. She looked at the demon confused.

'What are you still here for?' She asked him. The demon sneered in response.

'Nel was getting on in years, but she most certainly wasn't stupid.' Tom said. 'I reckon if you flicked the corner of that rug back, there'd be a ward underneath it. That's why he's still here.'

She raised a black eyebrow with a little amusement. She edged toward the rug and gently picked up its corner with the tip of her blade.

The blood had stuck the rug to the floor, but with prompting from her sword it came up. On the slate floor the bright red paint stood out, the top half of a strange symbol visible.

She barked a laugh, quick, harsh.

'Good work Nel, good work.' She whispered.

'Didn't save her though, and I'll kill you too.' He muttered.

'I don't think so.' She replied. 'Tom?'

Tom stepped forward and looked at the demon's black eyes.

'Why are you killing Hunters?' Tom asked. The demon spat at Tom.

Tom looked at the saliva running down his jacket with a determined look.

'This might hurt a little.' He said to the demon. He pulled at a chain around his neck; it had a wooden cross on the end. Tom held it whilst staring at the demon. He started reciting a Latin verse quietly. The demon looked at him with mocking disbelief, chuckling at his display.

He stopped quickly, a look of shock on his face. A light was starting to glow behind his black eyes.

'No!' he shouted, clutching his head in pain. 'What are you doing?'

She moved slowly around the circle.

'It's a blessing. It won't actually do anything, to you or your host, but it'll hurt like a bitch.'

The demon grunted in pain, falling to his knees still clutching his head.

The tone of Tom's voice changed; it got more urgent and the pace increased. The light behind the demons' eyes flashed and he howled in pain. The light disappeared as quickly as it came and the room was silent.

She rested on her haunches at the edge of the rug.

'That was a small blessing.' She said, 'Tom's got a whole repertoire. I suggest you start talking.'

The demon glared at her from his position on the floor, and threw the cold, un-beating heart in her face. It fell to the floor with a sickening squelch.

By the time he was ready to talk, Tom was sweating from the effort, his fingers sore from clutching hise cross.

The demon was on his back, clutching the rug. Blood was running from his eyes and nose.

'A seal!' he shouted as his eyes blazed white, Tom's urgent voice in the background.

'For her! She screams for them to be open!' He relaxed as the blessing finished.

'Who is she and what are the seals?' She asked. Her voice was quiet and calm.

The demon laughed, a tortured, scared laugh. 'You can't imagine what she'd do to me if I told you.'

She shrugged and nodded at Tom. Tom pulled a small notebook out of his pocket and started flicking through it.

'Wait! Wait! Others already know, and you're small fish in a really, really big pond. Fine. Her name, is Lillith.' He muttered.

'Lillith?' Her face showed a flicker of comprehension, but whatever it was she remembered had to be nothing compared to the truth. The look of horror on Tom's face said all she needed to know.

'What are the seals?' She asked more urgently.

'When the seals open, Hell walks free.' He muttered. The demon started laughing and chuckling to himself. He pulled and tugged at the rug he was laid on.

She flicked her head up at her partner who stared back at her. A blank look of shock and a quick nod was her response.

'Idiot!' The demon shrieked. She leapt up in between the demon and Tom, sword raised.

The demon spun over, pulling the rug away as he did, exposing the ward on the floor. With a swipe of his hand through the blood, he smeared the lines and symbols of the ward. Their power was broken.

He looked at Tom with crazed vengeance and dove at him. She was quicker, and met him midair. Her body weight threw him to the side toward Nel's broken body. The demon landed on his feet, a hand on the ground to steady him. He lunged forward to grab at the woman before she had time to right herself.

A loud shot rang through the cottage; the bullet grazed the side of his face. Tom's shot however had given her the chance she needed. With a deft swing, the hand of the lunging arm fell to the floor. The demon screamed. She sprang forward as the demon lunged for the doorway. The floor was still slick with congealed blood, and the demon had a head start. She lost her footing on the slippery slate floor and crashed to the ground as the door slammed closed behind him. The heart on the floor had gone.

'Damn it!' She screamed, shaking Tom off as he helped her up.

'Easy Anna.' He said.

'Like Hell 'easy Anna'!' she shouted. 'That's six Hunters dead Tom!' She stood for a few seconds looking at the floor taking deep breaths.

'Sorry.' She mumbled.

'S'okay.' Tom smiled.

'What was he talking about? Lillith sounds familiar, but seals don't.'

Tom had lost a lot of colour, and the sheen of sweat on his face made him look pale.

'I think it's just as he put it. Whether he was being literal about Hell walking free I'm not sure. We should head down to London for this one. We need to talk to Robert.' Tom said.

'He hates it when we arrive in the middle of the night.' She muttered. 'What are we going to do about this?' She asked, gesturing at Nel's body and the floor.

'We can't do much about Nel, but if we burnt the cottage down, that'd hide a multitude of sins.' He said quietly. 'As for driving to London, could we do that tomorrow? I don't feel too good.'

Anna looked down at him, still sat on the floor. Even more colour had drained from his face and he looked like he was going to be sick.

'Come on.' She said as she helped him to his feet. 'There's some sugar in the car.'

'And petrol.' He muttered with a smirk.

Twenty minutes and two bags of Skittles later, the rear view mirror showed there was a gentle glow of fire spreading through the cottage.

'You didn't do too badly back there.' Anna said, 'you nearly shot him in the head.'

'I was aiming for his shoulder.' He said. Anna laughed loudly as she drove. The cars headlights cut through the dark, winding lanes.

'We need to get that son of a bitch.' She said, her mirth gone.

'We will.' Tom muttered.

'He'll change host soon. He won't stay in that body now I cut off his wanking hand.'

'Anna!' Tom groaned. 'Not a thought I wanted in my head. Thanks.'

'No problem.' She smiled, 'Now, what is this crap?' She prodded at the stereo. 'Did you put Bon Jovi back on?'

'Maybe.' He muttered.

'You're one sick puppy.'

'Cow.'

'Tosser.'


	2. Wake Up Call

Chapter 2: Wake-up Call

'Robert! Good morning, I'm sorry to wake you.' Tom spoke brightly into his mobile. The sweets he'd eaten to get his energy back up had given him a sugar rush.

Tom pulled the phone away from his ear quickly. Anna could hear the shouting at the other end.

'Robert! Robert! Listen please!' Tom tried, but the shouting carried on for a few more seconds before Anna heard a gruff 'what' from the other end.

'I'm sorry to call so late, but we really need your help.' He said.

'Put him on loud speaker.' Anna said. Tom pressed the touch screen of his phone and held it flat in his hand.

'This couldn't wait till a Godly hour of the morning then?' A voice still rough with sleep said loudly.

'Sorry Robert.' Anna said with a grin on her face. The phone grunted at her.

'I can hear you smiling you vindictive cow. Can you not let an old man get his rest?' It said.

'You'll never be old.' Ann laughed.

'I will if you don't let me sleep.' Robert's voice mumbled out of the phone. 'So stop gibber-jabbing and tell me what it is you want.'

'We came across a demon this morning.' Tom started.

'What? Are you both alright?' Robert shouted.

"What? Robert, we're fine.' Anna said, frowning in confusion.

'Demons are nasty buggers at the best of times. With what's been going on, you need to be really damn careful, do you get me?' Robert's voice was laced with urgency.

'We're always careful.' Tom said quietly.

'Robert, do you know what's happening?' Anna asked, flickering her eyes from the motorway to the phone.

'There's talk. There's always talk, but there's something about it this time. I don't like it.' He replied.

'Well we might have something for you.' Anna said. 'Tom got a few answers out of him before he managed to get away.'

The voice grunted in a disapproving way.

'It couldn't be helped. If I could have stopped him I would have.' Anna all but growled.

'That's not what he's grunting at.' Tom said. Anna looked confused for a second before the phone sounded Robert's voice.

'Those are blessings, Tom.' Robert emphasised the word 'blessings' as he spoke. 'They're designed for good people, for protection. You're abusing the Word, Tom. Nothing good will come of that.'

'We've had this conversation before Robert.' Tom said in a steady voice. 'I respect your opinion, I do, but we'll still have to agree to disagree on this.'

Robert grunted again. There was silence for a few seconds before he continued.

'Well?' he asked.

'Well what?' Tom said.

'The demon, shit for brains! What did he say?' Robert roared.

'Oh! Yes. Right. Sorry. Forgot.' Tom muttered.

'Jesus Almighty.' Robert moaned. 'If wit were shit Tom, you'd be constipated.' Anna was about to say something, but choked on a laugh.

'Cow.'

'Tosser.' Anna managed through coughs. She cleared her throat and carried on.

'The demon said that he was opening the Seals for Lilith. Does that make any sense to you Robert?' There was silence.

'Robert?' Tom called.

'Still here.' The phone mumbled. 'And yes, it does make sense. You two should get down here.'

'We're already on our way.' Anna said, she flicked her eyes at the illuminated clock on the dashboard. 'Give us two hours and we'll be there.'

'Robert? Who's Lilith?' Anna asked. 'I remember that she's one of the biblical bad guys, but that's all I've got.'

'Bible-wise, Lilith is pretty much an unknown entity.' Robert said

'Oh, I thought she was a big, bad bitch.' Anna said.

'Lilith's appearance in the Bible is debatable at best. She's mentioned once in Isaiah. The passage is describing the ruin the Lord will bring on Edom, and how demons will call to each other. The Night Monster will seek a place to rest there.' Robert said. His tone had become more levelled and had gained an element of reverence as he spoke of the holy text.

'Night Monster? How is that a reference to Lilith?' Anna asked.

'Lilith is easier to find in myth and legend that she is the Bible.' Robert said. 'Tom might be a better person to fill us in on that though.'

'What about the Dead Sea Scrolls, Robert?' Tom asked.

'There is another mention of her there, but nothing that will help us. As Anna said, she's a big and really, really bad bitch.'

'The concept of Lilith has been around for thousands of years. She was a Wind Demon first, a good three, four thousands years B.C.E.' Tom said.

'She was a wind demon? As in, 'I'll blow your house down' wind, or 'thou shalt not eat beans or else' wind.' Anna asked.

'Anna, pay attention; the myths of Lilith go back thousands of years. Mesopotamia had Lilitu, Christians have Lilith and the Greeks had Lamia. In Arabic myth she was associated with the Karina.' Tom said.

'Your head is full of all kinds of weird, you know that?' Anna said.

'Anna,' Robert's voice said, 'the fact these legends are so old and widespread. That means she's old, powerful, and very, very dangerous.'

'Or,' Anna said, 'it means that someone got hold of a good story and it spread like a pre-historic Harry Potter.'

'Any other time, that'd be a good argument.' Tom said

'It would?' Robert sounded doubtful.

'Well, given the lack of any form of printing, verbal story telling was the norm. Stories would be formatted in ways that would make them easily memorable for recital. Given that the legends of Lilith explain away some of the basic evils of society, they could be easily adapted into nearly any culture that -'

'Tom!' Ann shouted.

'- required, what?' Tom sounded annoyed.

'Way, way off topic.' She said.

'Oh. Uh. What was I saying? Oh yeah. Harry Potter. That might have been a good point, if it weren't for Lilith now being alive, well, and slightly, you know, apocalyptic. If all these myths are based on the demon Lilith, the Lilith we need to stop, we're looking at all kinds of bad.'

'You couldn't have just said that in the first place?' Robert mumbled. Anna looked at the phone with a look of understanding sympathy.

'You're both unappreciative philistines.' Tom mumbled.

'Back to point Tom!' Robert shouted again. 'What else did he say about the Seals?'

'He said that Hell would walk free.' Anna said

'Nothing else?' He asked.

'No.' Tom said, 'I'm assuming he wasn't being literal. Unless he was talking about Hel, the daughter of Loki.'

'That's not what she meant.' Robert said, his voice grave. There was silence for a few seconds. Robert sighed down the phone.

'I've been speaking to some friends. Signs have been going crazy all over the world so this has got a lot of people talking.' Robert said. 'At the minute, we're thinking that the Seals are a set of locks. There are hundreds of Seals, all over the world.'

'What are they protecting?' Anna asked.

'Us.' Robert said. 'They're keeping Hell locked away. If Lilith manages to break sixty-six of them, then it's end game folks. Demons and devils will walk the Earth in there thousands. There will be death, torture, rivers of blood, sulphur thick in the air. Proper end of the world stuff coming.'

'Wow.' Tom whispered.

'And I wanted to go to Monaco. Damn it.' Anna moaned.

'I'm going to have a shower, then call a few people, see if I can get some more information on this.' Robert said.

'Cool. We'll be there soon.' Anna said. Her foot sank onto the pedal, the engine revving louder.

'Where did you meet the demon?' Robert asked.

'Nel Cooper's place.' Tom said.

'Ha! Nel? Bet she gave the bastard a run for his money.' Robert's laugh was gruff. Anna and Tom looked at each other in shock and grief. The silence grew.

'Nel?' Robert's voice wobbled. Neither Anna nor Tom could find the words to reply.

'Damn it!' Robert roared. The sound of something breaking in the distance came from the phone in Tom's hand.

'That son of a bitch!' He roared. 'You two listen to me. You find this bastard and you kill him! Do you get me?'

'Robert, we'll get him. We owe him.' Anna twisted her grip on the steering wheel.

"Bastard.' Robert said again.

'Robert, I'm sorry about Nel.' Tom said.

'She was a good woman, but she would have wanted to go out fighting.' Robert said.

'There's something else we should talk about.' Tom said. 'That's six Hunters dead, all had their hearts taken.'

'Bastard.' The phone exclaimed again.

'A ritual?' Anna asked.

'I reckon.' Robert said. 'Demons don't normally go for ritualistic killing if there isn't a point to it.'

'Is this the kind of thing they'd need for breaking a Seal?' Tom asked.

'Not an expert in demon rituals to bring about the end of the world Tom, but if I had to guess, then yes, I'd say it is.'

Anna stared at the road ahead of her and muttered. 'Bastard.'

'I'll see if I can have some answers for you when you get here.' Robert said.

'A few shots of your finest wouldn't go amiss either.' Anna said, smiling again.

Robert grumbled something at them before he hung up his phone.

'Told you he wouldn't appreciate the call.' Tom said as he put his phone away.

'At least he's got the angry and surprise out his system. Much better to deal with that at a distance, I think'. Anna said.

'I can't disagree with you there.'

'I didn't know he knew Nel.' Anna muttered.

'No, I didn't either. I guess we shouldn't be too surprised that he did, Robert's been in the game for awhile.' Tom replied.

'Yeah. I can't help but think he's holding out on us.' Anna commented.

'What? Why would you think that?'

'Don't know, just his tone I guess.' Anna said.

'We did just wake him up. He's probably a little hung over too.' Tom said. Anna laughed and nodded.

'Probably, I guess we'll see later.' Anna seemed lost in thought as she stared at the road zipping past her.

'Do you know what they'd need six hearts for?' Anna asked.

'I've been thinking about that.' Tom said.

'And?'

'I'm assuming that the hearts belonging to Hunters is significant, which opens up a few more questions. If I had to guess though, I would go for: a bloody ritual requiring the hearts of your enemy.' Tom finished.

'Pretty specific Tom.' Anna commented.

'Not really. It sounds like Lilith wants these Seals open pretty rapid-o, if they didn't need Hunters' hearts, they wouldn't have spent the time getting them. Also, Hunter's don't really come up specifically in rituals or myth. 'Enemy' is a little broader. The rest is just a guess based on what I know about demon ritual. They may be intending to put them on hats and dance a Foxtrot.' Anna cocked her head to the side with a puzzled face.

'Weird, weird imagery.' She said. Anna tugged at the wheel and pulled the car off at a junction.

'What are you doing? We're miles away from London?' Tom said.

'I'm just taking a tiny little detour.' She said. She drove up the ramp of the run-off and up to the roundabout at its top. With no urgency, she went across it and back onto the motorway she'd just come off.

'As far as detours go, that was rubbish.' Tom said.

'I'm sorry you didn't find it exciting. On the other hand, I'm now sure that we're being followed.' She replied.

'By who?' Tom blurted.

'Uh, hang on. Nope, not sure; he must be in a BMW, they always screw up my telepathy.' She said impatiently.

'Don't be a smart arse.' He said. Tom twisted around in his seat and pulled a bag off the back seat.

'What are you doing?' Anna asked.

'Just keep driving normally.' He said, 'You know, for you.'

'What's wrong with my driving?' She squeaked.

'Nothing paying attention to a few speed limits wouldn't fix.' Tom muttered with his head almost in the bag. Anna made a 'pfft' sound and waved her hand at him dismissively.

Tom gave a triumphant 'A-ha!' brandishing a tiny wooden figurine along with a small ceramic bowl.

'What's the plan?' She asked.

'I'm going to see if it's a demon following us.' Tom said, 'Uh, well, hopefully. Not entirely sure if this is going to work.'

Tom emptied some holy water into the bowl in his lap. He held the female figurine from his hand over the bowl. He stared at the figuring for a few seconds before taking the bowl of water off his lap.

'Crap crap crap.' He muttered as he tried to pull the notebook out of his back pocket.

'Got it. Now.' He flicked to the right page and began mumbling. He had to slow down on some of the words to get the pronunciation right. Half way through, he pulled a small knife from the bag at his feet.

'Oh no. Tom, you are not bleeding in my car!' Anna said. Tom didn't pay any attention, and ran the steel blade across his palm. The blood dripped into the bowl of water, turning it a reddish pink. He finished the rest of the incantation in a strained voice, dripping blood onto the figurine. With an exclaimed word, he dropped the figurine into the bowl, and then dropped the bowl out of the open window. They heard the ceramic shatter against the tarmac.

Tom turned around in his seat to look out of the back window. The night was dark, but they could both see the headlights of a car swerve dramatically as it passed over where the small bowl had broken.

'Yep, definitely a demon.' He mumbled. Tom held his injured hand in his lap whilst he wrestled the first-aid kit from the glove box.

'What was that?' Anna exclaimed. 'That wasn't even Latin!'

'Nope. It was an Aztec land blessing. Aztec rituals don't generally last very long, but they're quite powerful. Our friend back there is probably in more pain than I am.' Tom muttered, still wrestling with the first-aid kit.

'You just blessed part of the M6 whilst doing ninety miles an hour?' Anna asked, incredulous.

'Yes, but less of my amazing talents, and more of your dangerous driving please.' He said, trying to tape gauze to his hand. Anna shrugged.

'Hokey dokey.' Anna put the peddle to the floor, and the car responded with a loud growl.

'That's my girl.' Anna purred.


	3. Of Demons and Devils

Chapter 3: Of demons and devils

The car pulled up outside a large terraced house somewhere in the Kilburn area of London. A light was shining through the drawn curtains of the front downstairs room. It was four in the morning, and the sun was still a couple of hours from rising. Anna had sped away from the pursuing car and managed to finally loose it nearly an hour before arriving. Much to Tom's distress however, Anna hadn't slowed down until the curving streets of London had forced her to. Even then however, she'd only slowed as much as she had to.

Anna jumped out of the car and took the steps to Robert's house two at a time. The garden on either side was neatly trimmed, but not overly tended. There were no strange or exotic herbs growing here like there had been in Nel's garden.

Tom slowly opened the car door and carefully stepped out. Unsure of his feet beneath him after being hurled through the streets and roads of lower England, he took the steps slowly.

Anna rolled her eyes at Tom and rapped smartly on the solid wooden door. The curtains on her left twitched a little before she heard footsteps towards the door. By the time it opened, Tom was stood next to Anna, looking a little healthier now he was out of the car.

Robert was a stocky man in his late fifties, his face had a thick layer of stubble and there were dark bags under his eyes. He wore simple brown trousers and a plain white shirt.

'Damn Robert, you should try and get some sleep.' Anna said when she saw him.

'Get in here.' He growled as he stepped aside.

Anna strode into the house and headed straight down the hall towards the kitchen. Tom nodded hello at Robert and waited with him while he locked and bolted the door.

'Come on then!' Anna shouted from down the corridor.

Robert had already started walking, mumbling to himself.

Robert's dining room was at the back of the house. The dining table in the centre was covered in open books, surrounding a large pale sheet of parchment. The sheet of parchment was pressed in between two large clear sheets of plastic.

The bookshelves were neatly filled from side to side with various topics. Charles Dickens and Daniel Defoe were on the left as they walked in. Two cabinets were at the end of the room. One of the cabinet doors was slightly ajar, a worn leather book visible in its interior. The rest of the books that made up the contents of these cabinets were now laid out over the table.

'Robert, I've only just noticed.' Tom said, tracing a hand over Great Expectations, 'Your books are in alphabetical order.'

'Of course they are.' He said, 'How else would you find anything?' He moved over to the table and took the glass that Anna passed him. A healthy helping of Johnny Walker Blue Label swished around the glass.

''It's been short notice, but this is what I've got so far.' Robert said. He was stood over the books laid out over the table. In front of him was a pad of paper covered in small, neat handwriting.

Anna passed a large wine glass filled with a dark red to Tom.

'Over here,' Robert gestured to three open books at the top end of the table, 'are the relevant references to Lilith that I've been able to find. The one book at the other end of the table is by a man called Cravenly; it's mostly new age, apocalyptic crap. There is one reference to what could be our seals though.'

'What's with the gap?' Anna was pointing at a space at the top of the plastic encased parchment.

'That's for any references about Lilith and seals. I got nothing on that, but it was always a long shot.' He said. 'On the other hand, I have got you something about the seals though, and you aren't going to like it.'

'Robert,' Tom said in a low, drawn out voice. 'What's that?' He said, pointing at the parchment.

'Ah, was wondering when you were going to ask.' He said with a smug smile, 'that, is one of the Dead Sea Scrolls.'

'You have one of the Dead Sea Scrolls?' Tom asked, an eyebrow rose in disbelief.

'That's what I said, wasn't it?' He said loudly.

'How did you get it?' Tom asked, incredulously.

'You nicked it from a museum didn't you.' Anna said. Her glass had seemed to develop a tendency to top itself up when nobody was looking.

'No. A friend in the States sent it me. They were a bit worried about what it might say, so wanted a friendly pair of eyes to go over it. If they don't like it, they could blame it's disappearance on the journey.'

'Who're 'they'?' Anna asked.

'The Church, I'm guessing.' Tom said, in a clearly disapproving manner.

'Yes, The Church.' Robert said, 'You might want to keep that holier than thou attitude behind your teeth until you know exactly what this is.'

Anna suddenly looked interested and flashed a glance at Tom.

'What does it say?' Tom mumbled sheepishly.

'Can't you read it?' Anna asked.

'This looks like Ancient Hebrew.' He said, shaking his head.

'One of the original languages of the Bible, and you can't read it?' Anna said with a disbelieving tone.

'I speak three ancient languages and read various dialects of cuneiform, what more do you want from me?' Tom bawled, outraged.

'Ancient Hebrew.' Anna replied.

'Jesus help us.' Robert muttered. 'If you two are quite done. Yes Tom, it is Ancient Hebrew, but it's also written in an unusual code. So far, I can tell you it's part of the War Scroll. This section,' Robert pointed to a large verse in its middle, 'is what I'm interested in, and also, why it's on the table with the stuff on Lilith.'

'This has something to do with Lilith?' Anna asked.

'Quite possibly.' Robert said. 'The War Scroll is a collection of scrolls and fragments, it's also known as The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness.'

Tom's head snapped up from studying the text to look at Robert.

'That sounds like something particularly relevant.' He said.

'Doesn't it just.' Robert smiled. 'According to the parts of the scroll that have been translated, the good guys win.'

'That's good news.' Anna said, 'Although you've spoilt the ending for me.' She said, pouting a childish sulk.

'I wouldn't count on it.' Robert said, 'As you can see from this scroll being here, the Church have managed to be quite selective about which parts of the texts have been publicly translated.'

'Ah. So, not good news.' Anna mumbled into her glass.

'What's this verse?' Tom asked, pointing at the same section that Robert had pointed to earlier.

'This is the part that's written in code, but from the first few lines, it seems like a kind of exorcism.' He said.

'I don't understand,' Anna said, 'we already have exorcisms. What's the biggy with this one?'

'I won't know until I finish it. I may well have nothing but gibberish at the minute.' Robert paused, staring at the text.

'Okay, so this is a project for later.' Anna said, 'What did you have on the seals.'

'Yes, the seals.' Robert looked at Tom and Anna. 'I wasn't sure at first, but I've spoken to others and we're all of, roughly, the same opinion.' Robert paused to take a mouthful of whiskey.

'And?' Anna prompted.

'It seems as if the seals - well, the seals are the locks that keep Lucifer from rising.'

There was a short pause before Anna and Tom both shouted 'What!?'

'Lucifer? Big, bad, I'm the fucking Devil, Lucifer?' Anna shouted.

'It would appear so.' Robert said calmly.

'Appear so? I can't imagine there are too many demonic Lucifer impersonators.' Tom said loudly. He took a large gulp from the wine glass that had so far been untouched.

'We need to stop her.' Anna said. She'd put her glass on the table and was now pacing around the room.

'That we do. Until we find her, the best thing we can do now is catch the demon you fought up North.' Robert said, his voice was muted a little as he bent over to pull a small, wheeled table out from underneath the dining table. On its top were a few more books, two of which were covered in hand written scribbles and diagrams.

'How does he break the seal?' Tom asked.

'None of the Hunters that were killed really had anything in common accept that they were Hunters. The places they were killed don't form any pattern, and none of them, as far as I know, were working on anything Lilith related.' Robert said, counting the points off on his fingers.

'That leaves us with the first point: they were all Hunters.' Robert paused for a drink. Anna went to ask a question, but Robert silenced her with a raised hand.

'When you were at the murder scenes, did you notice any scorch marks on their chests?' Robert asked.

Tom seemed to blanch a little at the memories of the defiled corpses, but Anna continued apace.

'Nope. The chests were pretty much caved in. This demon is ripping the hearts out himself.' She finished.

'Son of a bitch.' Robert growled, 'Clever though.'

'Why?' Tom asked.

'I reckon that whilst he's taken their hearts, he's after their souls.' Robert picked up one of the books from the small table, covered in scribbles and pictures.

'There's a ritual he could use to anchor their soul into the heart. This in turn, would fit with one of the seals we've been coming up with. A symbol would need to be burnt into their chest before the heart was removed.'

'Riddles Robert! Give us the bottom line.' Anna demanded with impatience.

'There is a ritual which requires the captured souls of six warriors of one of the lost tribes.' Despite the topic, Robert was getting excited about the revelation, and had delivered what he considered the 'bottom line' to an uncomprehending Anna.

Anna looked at him with despair, 'English? Tom?'

Tom hadn't quite missed the revelation, and Robert had turned to look at him. Tom was staring at the floor with a creased brow.

'Lost tribe, as in, lost tribe of Israel?' Tom asked.

'Yes!' Robert nearly shouted.

'To open the seal, the demon needs six souls of Hunters from a lost tribe of Israel. There were ten tribes exiled, and an argument that the Celts and Anglo-Saxons were descendants from one of them.' Tom said, still staring at the floor, concentrating.

'We'd also make the most sense, as England has a large amount of Hunters for its size, so we'd be much easier to find.' Tom looked up at Robert.

'Right, so what is he going to do with them?' Anna asked.

'That means that we're one of the lost tribes.' Tom said, dumbfound, at Robert. There was a glint of excitement in Robert's eye as he nodded.

'That's incredible.' Tom muttered.

'No,' Anna said, 'you two are incredible. Lucifer may be strolling down the street, but it's okay! We're one of the lost tribes! He can eat all the newborns he likes, because, hey! We're one of the lost tribes!' she shouted. 'Pull. It. Together!'

'Sorry Anna.' Tom muttered.

'What is gong to happen next?' Anna said again.

'The seal is linked to a relic from Israel.' Robert had walked back to the table and passed a printed picture to Anna. She took a glance at the picture and dropped it to the table with a shrug.

'It's a rock.' She said.

'It looks like obsidian.' Tom said. He took a step to the table and picked the picture up.

'Bugger me.' He laughed.

'What?' Anna's annoyance flared anew. Tom turned the picture around to show Anna. With an index finger, traced some of the patterns on the stone.

'Cuneiform.' He said with a smile.

'How long would you need to properly translate them?' Robert asked.

'Uh.' Tom glanced over the symbols. 'I can do it now.' He said. 'The dialect is the same used by Enheduana, so quite well studied as far as these things go.'

A few seconds passed as he concentrated on the stone.

'Uh, shit.' He mumbled.

'Well, it wasn't going to be good news was it.' Robert grunted.

'It's a big warning about a demon that got locked within the stone.' Tom said, still looking at the symbols. 'Enheduana was a priestess, and that seems to have a lot to do with the stone.

A group of priests performed an old world style exorcism on a demon, a really bad one from the sound of the warnings on the stone. They expelled it from its host, but couldn't send it back to the underworld, so they locked it in this.' Tom said, flicking the picture.

'So if they unlock the seal.' Anna muttered.

'We get one step closer to Armageddon and have a big, angry demon on our tails chasing us the rest of the way there.' Robert finished.

'Where's the stone?' Tom asked.

'I'm working on it. It was in Israel, but it went missing about three weeks ago.' Robert walked around the table and sat down, picking his glass up from the side. 'It was this thing being missing that put the pieces together for me.'

'Good work.' Tom said. 'Really, I'm especially impressed with you identifying the ritual, researching Lilith and the seals as well as managing to get a relevant Dead Sea Scroll all within three hours.'

'Kind of beyond forethought, Robert.' Anna nodded.

He exhaled loudly, and then pinched the top of his nose as if trying to shake off a headache.

'There've been rumours of Lilith kicking around for awhile.' Robert said, 'All the stuff on Lilith I've been working on for a while. Getting the Scroll was sheer dumb luck.'

'Why haven't you mentioned any of this before?' Anna asked. She pulled a chair out from the table opposite Robert and sat down.

'This isn't your standard Ghost Busters gig. There are Hunters, older and better than you, being ripped to pieces.' Robert was talking quietly, not making eye contact with Tom or Anna. He shrugged his shoulders and fell back against the back of his chair. 'Anyway, most of the big stuff seems to be based in the U.S.' He finished.

'Robert, were you worried about us?' Tom asked with a cheeky smile.

'They way you handle a gun I should be.' Robert said sharply. Tom's smile changed into a sulk as he dropped into another chair.

'But yes, I suppose I was. Am. Whatever.' Robert muttered at the table.

'Don't worry about us Robert, we can look after ourselves.' Anna said. She slid the half empty bottle of Johnny Walker across the table. Tom flinched as it just missed the scroll, pressed in its case.

Robert didn't reply, but topped his glass up.

'When do you think we'll know about the stone?' Tom asked, breaking the silence.

'I've got a couple of leads. Last place it was seen was northern Italy, but that was over a week ago.' Robert said. A glint of sunlight got through a gap in the curtains and made Robert squint.

'You've both been up all night. There are beds upstairs, go get some sleep.' Robert got up from the table and took his empty glass into the kitchen. Anna shrugged, downed the last of her drink and made her way upstairs. Tom looked at the still half full glass in front of him. Shaking his head as if deciding against something, he pulled himself out of the chair and headed upstairs.


	4. An Unexpected Adventure

Chapter 4: An Unexpected Adventure

It was the loud cluttering and banging that eventually pulled Tom back to consciousness. Robert only had one spare room, but he'd set up a camp-bed by the side of the single. Pulling himself up, he looked blearily around the room. The bed next to him was empty; half the duvet was draped on the floor. A bright shaft of light that had managed to sneak through the curtains, lighting up the dancing specks of dust in the air.

Tom rolled off the camp-bed and pulled himself up onto his hands and knees. The loud noises were coming from the kitchen below him where Robert was undoubtly putting together his idea of a morning feast.

Wearing the same clothes as he had yesterday, he used the bedside-table to pull himself upright. With the camp-bed set up, there wasn't much space left in the small room, so Tom carefully shuffled his way to the door.

Blearily, Tom managed to shuffle all the way to the bathroom door and with a small sense of achievement, pushed at the handle. The door swung open and a huge ball of steam raced out of the bathroom, nearly engulfing Tom. Anna bundled out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel and yesterday's clothes in hand.

'Morning Tom!' She chirped as she dashed past him to the spare room.

'Bloody morning people.' Tom grumbled, 'Should be shot.'

Anna had shoved the door closed behind her and flicked the lock. She flicked the towel off and quickly wrapped it around her long hair. She flung the towel back over her head to keep it in place and looked at her clothes on the bed.

'Age old question,' She muttered, 'same underwear as yesterday, or none at all.' With a few more seconds thought, her decision was made.

Now dressed, she unlocked and opened the door and made her way downstairs. The loud cluttering noises had been coming from the kitchen. Robert was finishing plating-up breakfast: fried sausages, fried bread, fried eggs, fried tomatoes, fried bacon, fried black pudding. And beans.

'Robert, you God!' Anna whispered in awe. She grabbed a plate and dove at the array of food laid out in the saucepans and bowls.

'There's juice on the table.' Robert said with a smile.

'You're spoiling me Robert. Please, feel free to continue.' Anna laughed.

Anna sat herself at the table they had been talking over last night. The books had been cleared and locked away and the Scroll was nowhere to be seen.

Robert joined Anna at the table with his own plate and they both began to eat in silence.

A few minutes later, Tom trundled downstairs and went straight for the kitchen. He emerged with his own plate and sat next to Anna, who yelped loudly and looked at Tom outraged.

'You pinched me!' She said in disbelief.

'You left me with no hot water, again.' Tom said, 'that's the second time this week. You're lucky I don't set fire to your duvet while you're sleeping.'

'I can't believe you pinched me.' Anna said again. Tom ignored her and looked over at Robert.

'Is there anything we can be doing to find the stone?' Tom asked.

'I got a call a couple of hours ago. We may have a lead: a friend is chasing it up.' Robert replied, 'He should be giving me a call in a few hours, so whatever it is you end up doing, don't go too far.'

'Cool.' Anna said as she bounced up from her seat. 'I need to do some stuff in town.' She walked into the kitchen and started running water into the sink.

'I'm going to do some digging into this demon that's bound to the stone.' Tom said. 'It's bothering me that he's supposedly such a powerful demon, but never been mentioned in any texts.'

Robert nodded, 'I was wondering that myself. There's not so much as a nickname in the stuff I've got here.'

'There's a lecturer at the University of Birmingham who's one of the best in the field; I'll give him a call later. A friend of mine works at the National Museum, although this isn't her area, she's the dog's at pulling research from thin air.' Tom replied.

'We could certainly do with some answers.' Robert mumbled. He stood from his chair and took their plates into the kitchen.

Tom pulled his phone out from his jean pocket and started scrolling through his address book. He found the number he wanted and hit dial just as Anna came stomping down the stairs.

'I'll be back in a few hours!' She shouted as her outlined darted past the doorway to the kitchen. 'Oh, and Tom?' Her head had appeared around the side of the doorframe, 'We need to practice later.'

Tom rolled his eyes, but nodded at her while the phone rang in his ear. Anna's face disappeared again and within seconds the door had slammed shut behind her.

Tom's phone finally stopped ringing.

'Charlotte Knight.' A young, brisk voice chirped down the other end.

'Good morning Charlotte, it's Tom.'

'Oh my God! Tom, it's been ages, how are you?' Charlotte nearly shouted down the phone.

'I'm good thank you. I was wondering if you were free today, I've come across a Mesopotamian legend that's baffled me somewhat. I need some ideas about where to go and couldn't help but think of you.' Tom said casually.

'Ooh, is this related to, you know,' Charlotte's voice dropped to a dramatic whisper, 'hunting.' She whispered the last word with such melodrama that Tom couldn't help rolling his eyes again.

'Possibly,' Tom said, 'but we're not sure yet. Do you have the time today?'

'Yes! Absolutely, you know me, always ready!' Charlotte shouted.

'Brilliant, I'll be at the museum in about forty minutes.' Tom said as he went to hang up the phone.

'Great, oh wait a second.' Charlotte quickly shouted again.

'Oh, yep?'

'I was actually thinking of calling you the other day. Some weird things have been happening here, like dodgy lights, things not being where we left them. It's an old building and everything, but, you know, would you mind?' She said.

'Not a problem, I'll bring some stuff with me and check it out.' Tom said with a small smile.

'Great. Okay then, I'll uh, I'll see you later.' Charlotte stammered before hanging up.

'Robert?' Tom called into the kitchen.

'Yeah?'

'Anna's gone out and I'm off to the museum, give me a call if you hear anything.' He shouted. Robert walked into the room still drying a saucepan.

'Will do.' He said, 'What was is that Anna wants to practice?'

'Ugh, Anna's been going on at me to learn to fight, so she's been teaching me.' Tom muttered as he cleared his stuff away.

'Ha! You must love that.' Robert laughed.

'Yeah, it's great.' Tom said dryly. 'I'll be back later.'

It was mid-day when Anna got off the tube at Baker Street and dodged her way through the crowds and tourists. Anna took the walk slowly, enjoying the hustle of London in her quiet stride. She winked at a guy that was walking passed her on the pavement. The man smiled and then cast a nervous glance at the oblivious girlfriend by his side. Unperturbed, Anna made sure she gave him a hard slap on the ass as she walked passed.

Still with a cheeky smirk on her face, she pushed the door open to the Japanese kitchenware shop. Anna walked passed the displays of kitchen knives and went straight to the counter.

'Hey, is Cheung here?' Anna asked the tiny Japanese woman behind the counter. The woman's features didn't move, but her head nodded slightly. Leaving the counter via a door behind the desk, Anna was left in the shop for only a minute or so before Cheung arrived.

Cheung was an elderly Japanese man, but pushing nearly six feet tall. His forearms were thick with muscle and his face was humourless as he walked in.

'Good to see you Cheung.' Anna said with a smile.

'Anna, it is good to see you are well.' Cheung replied, the corners of his mouth went up at each side. 'I am glad you stopped by, I have something for you.'

'Oh, you got me a present? Why Cheung, I don't think your wife would like that.' Anna said with a laugh, 'to be honest, I don't think she likes me at the minute anyway.' Anna finished, trying to see Cheung's wife over his shoulder: the small woman who was behind the counter.

'What can I do for you today?' Cheung asked, ignoring Anna's comment. Anna swung the sports bag she had been wearing off her back and laid it on the counter. Unzipping the bag, she pulled out her sheathed Katana.

'I was in the area and was wondering if you would mind giving her a service.' Anna said, gently handing the sheathed blade to him.

Cheung looked around the shop; seemingly satisfied with the lack of prying eyes, pulled the blade from the sheath. He laid it on the counter and looked closely at the Katana,

'Seen action.' Cheung said, more to himself than Anna. Cheung lurched upright suddenly, pointing at a spot on the blade.

'This! What is this?' Cheung said accusingly.

The Katana had a twist of silver that ran across its length. For about half an inch underneath the silver strip in the middle, was a tiny sliver off black-red.

'Oh, uh, demon blood.' She said quietly.

'I don't care if it dragon blood. You haven't cleaned properly. Silver is not steel, it delicate. You must, must clean properly.' Cheung was still pointing at the sword. His Japanese accent got thicker as he got agitated.

'I know, I'm sorry Cheung. It was only last night and it's been a long road since then.'

'No excuse.' Cheung said. He slid the sword back in its sheath and put it under the counter. 'Come back tomorrow, after four, Sword will be sharpened, oiled, and cleaned.' He put a little emphasis on the last word.

As he put the sword down out of sight, he picked up a black box and put it on the counter top.

'Here.' He said.

Anna slowly lifted the lid of the box until she could see its contents. She dropped the lid as if it had bitten her and looked at Cheung with a huge grin.

'No way.' She said.

'Yes, way.' Cheung said with an amused smile.

Anna flipped the lid of the box back and looked at the shuriken stars that were neatly arranged in its interior.

The steel of the shuriken stars had been darkened during its tempering, so that they wouldn't reflect light so readily. Each shuriken had four curved points. In the centre of each one was a different Japanese character etched in silver. Strips of silver were woven around the character and spun off onto the edge of the star. The effect meant that each point of the star and its edges were lined with silver.

'The bottom of box a belt. You can wear them without stabbing yourself.' Cheung said, 'They are also easy to clean.' None of the features on his face moved, but his sly wink was a silent laugh.

Anna closed the lid of the box and bowed to Cheung. 'I am most grateful.' Anna said.

'You are welcome. You fight with honour, Anna, so you shall fight with my steel.' Cheung bowed his head and pushed the box closer to Anna.

Anna carefully put the box into her bag, bowed again, and turned to leave. A big smile appeared on her face as she remembered that the first time she had met Cheung, she had joked about him giving her a set of shuriken.

With her katana now being tended, Anna was free to peruse the streets of London and Westminster.

Having just come out of Starbucks, her large double shot Americano in hand, she set out on her deliberately slow walk of the bustling streets of London.

Walking passed an alleyway, a strange flicker of movement caught her eye. Spinning like a dropped coin, a manhole cover noisily finished spinning and rested on the ground.

Anna looked up and down the street to see if anyone else had noticed the strange phenomena. Asides from the looks of cross Londoners moving around her, Anna didn't see anyone who was paying particular interest.

With a resigned sigh, she walked down the street to investigate. A hundred yards down the alleyway Anna couldn't smell anything but stale urine and sewage. Wrinkling her nose at the smell, she crouched over the accused manhole cover. It had come to rest exactly where it should: over the top of a manhole.

Frowning, Anna touched the top of the cover. Bringing her hand to her face to try and catch some sunlight in the dingy alley, Anna rubbed the warm blood between her fingers.

She took a large swig of her coffee and then set it down against the wall. Pulling her phone from the pocket of her jeans she hit the speed dial.

'Pick up Tom!' she muttered with urgency. The phone rang until it was picked up by Tom's voicemail.

'Hey, it's Tom, leave me a message. Bye.' The recording finished with an unpleasant beep.

'Tom, I'm sewer diving. Call me.' Anna hung up the phone and pulled the black box out of her bag.

'Looks like we're going to get some practice in.'

Tom walked the last part of his journey down Great Russell Street. It was impossible to miss the British Museum. The Ancient Greek architecture pushed itself to the fore of the street. Eight huge fluted columns held up an engraved pediment of graceful and commanding figures. Walking in between the columns made him feel incredibly small, but awed by the works of the people who inspired the architects.

Tom had known Charlotte for a couple of years. She had been a PhD student at Royal Holloway, on a placement at The Ashmolean in Oxford. He had needed access to restricted parts of the museum, so faked a few calls and arrived as The Ashmolean's newest student. Despite his situation, Tom couldn't help but admire her fascination for learning; her innocence of the world outside books and museums also provided a healthy amount amusement.

The ghost they had been hunting had been moving around the country, quite the feat for a two hundred year old dead man. It had turned out that he was looking for his old student, the student who had poisoned him and stolen his work.

Charlotte would have been his next victim had Anna not found his old dairy. When living, the ghost had put so much of himself into his writing that it had served as an anchor to his incorporeal self.

Having seen too much to have it explained away as a 'bad pint' or stressful day, Tom and Anna had explained some of that 'outside world' to Charlotte. Since then, Charlotte's keen mind and useful contacts had come in useful on more than one occasion.

And there she was. Waiting by the main reception, all five foot three of her, looking through the incoming crowds with a look of concentration. A smile lit up her face as she saw Tom and bounded through the crowds.

'Hey!' she shouted as she launched into a hug.

'Hey trouble.' Tom said, smiling and returning the hug. 'It's been a long time. How have you been?'

'Good. Stressed, but good.' Charlotte said, pulling back and falling in step next to him as they walked into the museum. A huge Aztec picture loomed over them, 'Metzutuma' printed in turquoise underneath.

'Getting into the British Museum was hard. Nearly all the curators here are so well experienced, so I've got a lot of work to do.' She paused, 'but what about you? How have you been?'

'You know, the same. There isn't a lot of scope for real personal development.' Tom said with a barked laugh. 'Anna and I, we think we're on to something, but we're not sure.'

'Right,' Charlotte said with a matter-of-fact tone, 'down to business. What is it that I can help with?'

'How are you on Mesopotamian myth?' he asked. Charlotte shook her head.

'Not my forte I'm afraid. I'm sure we could probably find whatever it is you're looking for though.' Charlotte had stopped by a small, discreet wooden door. 'Dr C. Knight' was on a basic black slate on the door.

Charlotte opened the door and gestured with a hand for him to go inside.

The office was very small, just big enough for Charlotte's desk and a filing cabinet. Charlotte dropped herself behind her desk and flicked a switch on her computer that slowly buzzed to life.

'Welcome to where I spend most of my life.' Charlotte laughed, gesturing with her arms at the small office.

'You must be really proud.' Tom said with a genuine smile. 'A curator at the British Museum and not even thirty.'

Charlotte dipped her head a little as she blushed.

'I've been really lucky.' Charlotte cocked her head to the side with a puzzled look. 'Can you hear that?'

Tom listened, and could hear a faint, high-pitched ringing. Listening carefully, the ringing was coming from Tom's pocket. He pulled his phone out of his pocket.

'What is that?' Charlotte asked, looking at the machine plugged into the bottom of Tom's phone.

The small black square plugged into his phone was flashing red, a small white indicator nearly off its small gage.

The ringing stopped suddenly. The flashing light faded and the indicator fell back to its resting place.

'It's an EMF detector.' Tom said, still looking at the machine.

'What's it mean?' Charlotte said quietly.

Tom had pressed his speed dial and was listening to his phone.

'I'm not here, so leave a message.' Anna's voice said.

Tom hung up the phone and looked at Charlotte.

'It means we're going ghost hunting.'

5


	5. SewerDiving

Chapter 5: Sewer-Diving

Anna closed her eyes as she hopped off the last rung that was attached to the sewer wall. She was desperately hoping for the clatter of her heels on stone or cement. Sadly, Anna's foray into London's sewers was begun by landing in something that went 'squelch'. Anna's shoulders slumped a little in disappointment.

She pulled her phone out of her jeans and hit the camera button. The white light on the phone flared into life, illuminating the dark brickwork of the tunnel, and the grey sludge she as stood in.

Anna raised an eyebrow at the brick work. Carefully and meticulously laid, the Victorian's attention to detail was bordering on obsessive compulsive. It concerned her slightly that she was developing preferences for the sewers of different cities.

'I need to stop doing this.' She muttered to herself. She crouched down to examine the sludge covered floor, trying desperately not to think about what it was. The marks left in the sludge were so large Anna almost missed them. Someone had been dragged away from the point she had landed. Whilst this would make tracking it relatively easy, it had covered over the footprints of the abductor.

With nimble fingers, and her phone in her mouth, she wrapped the shuriken belt around her waist and familiarised herself with where the shuriken rested.

A man's scream echoed down the sewer tunnel.

'Well, he's clearly not dead yet.' She muttered. Her phone held high, she ran down the tunnel as quickly as she dared, following the trail left for her.

She hadn't been running for more than a couple of minutes before she started to hear a voice from somewhere. High-pitched, it rambled on in sentences that Anna couldn't quite make out. Anna slowed her run down, continuing to move forward at a careful walking pace. There was a sharp bend in the tunnel ahead of her. She was close enough now that she could hear the muffled breathing of the high-pitched creature's captive.

Anna closed her eyes and slowed her breathing. She could hear the chatter of the creature: high-pitched, unintelligible mutter. Asides from the breathing of its captive, she couldn't hear anybody else around the corner. Taking comfort in the fight being one on one, she slowly peered around the corner. The area was made up of five converging tunnels. It was large, and sunlight was coming from somewhere, lighting the room enough to see the back of the creature. The creature was about four feet tall, although it was hunched over the man it had kidnapped, so she couldn't be sure. Tied to the wall behind them was a woman, limp hair covered most of her pale face. If she wasn't dead, she soon would be. Two ragged lines had been cut down her forearms and sloppily bandaged in dirty rags. Anna wasn't sure if she was still breathing.

The creature moved forwards; the man had been gagged and his hands tied together. Whilst small, the creature was evidently very strong. It hauled itself up to a hook, a good six feet up the wall, bringing the bound man with him and hanging him by his hands from the hook. As it dropped down to the floor, it observed his new prize with his hands on his hips. The man, still conscious, saw Anna through the dim light and started trying to scream through the gag. The creature turned quickly, and glared at Anna. IIts nose was large and hooked, as if broken innumerable times. Its eyes were wide with surprise and its snarl showed yellow, crooked teeth. On its head sat a cloth hat, damp with blood.

Anna stepped into full view, scowling back at the creature.

'What a surprise! Yes, yes, a surprise, that's what she is. Is she here for him, I wonder? Hmm, maybe, maybe she is. I could do with another, yes, yes I could.' The creature moved side to side, leaning towards the wall. As it spoke, it kept touching its hat, almost in a loving, affectionate manner.

'Slowly, slowly, don't want to scare her away.' It whispered. It pulled its hand back from the shadow, revealing a long spear. The metal tip was covered in rust, but still, quite deadly.

'Hey! It's rude to talk about people like they're not here.' Anna shouted at it. The goblin flinched slightly at the unexpected noise, but it clutched its spear tightly.

Anna held her shoulders back and spoke with a tone of command. 'What are you doing down here?'

'Why am I here? Why are you here!?' the goblin screeched. 'My home, my place. No place for me in the sun, big-folk everywhere: disbelief, banality!'

Anna rolled her eyes at the creature. 'I meant, in London. I've never met a Redcap south of Yorkshire. You're a long way from home, goblin-boy'.

'She knows me? She knows my kind, does she? Maybe she colludes with them. Come to mock me have you? See my exile!?' The goblin made a wild gesture with his spear and free arm to his surroundings.

'Whoa there.' Anna said, both hands held out in front of her. 'I don't know anything about you. I heard He-man over there scream and came to see what the fuss was about.'

'You're here for them, then?' the goblin muttered quietly, all trace of anger gone. He tilted his head to one side and stared at her in an appraising manner.

'They can go free.' He said.

Anna paused, completely baffled. 'Excuse me?'

'They can go free.' He said again.

'They can? I can just get them down, and leave?' She asked.

'No, no, no, no, no.' The goblin shook his head violently. 'They go free, I have you.'

'Um, that's not really going to work for me.' Anna said. Her hands were resting on the base of her back, feeling the shuriken under her jacket.

'Hmph. That's a good deal, yes, yes it is. Two free, one mine. And the man too, more blood in a man. It's rude to say no in someone's home, the girl's mother must have been a harlot.'

'Oh no you didn't.' A shuriken sat nicely in the palm of each of her hands.

It cocked its head to one side, 'No more niceness! No more games!' The goblin whispered, 'Blood!' it screeched. It launched the spear at Anna's head, slamming it into the brickwork as Anna ducked, not taking her eyes of the little goblin. It pulled a rusty knife from its belt and charged at Anna, screaming. Anna let one of the shuriken fly, embedding it in the creature's leg. She ran at it and using her momentum, flipped herself over the goblin's head. She landed quite a distance behind the goblin, sprawled across the stone sewer floor. Rule one when fighting Redcaps: Never let them catch you.

The creature laughed wildly. It leapt at the spear embedded in the wall and yanked it free in a hail of loose brick and cement.

Anna had managed to get to her feet and over to one of the many pipes that lined the walls. Twisting one of the dials quickly, a pipe started gushing water into the sewer.

The goblin span around, grinning manically and once more wielding its spear. Without taking its malicious eyes of Anna, it plucked the shuriken from its leg and cast it to the floor.

'Nasty silver. Nasty girl. I shall bleed you slowly, nasty girl.' It muttered. The goblin moved slowly towards her, its slow march inspired more by a desire to cause terror than the unsealing gash in its leg.

Between them, the water continued to be blasted into the sewer. Anna brandished the goblins hat in her hand, plucked from his head when she had flipped over him. The goblin stared at the hat in disbelief, patting his head quickly with his free hand.

'No! No! She can't have!' He spun around, looking around at the floor to see instead if it had fallen off. The goblin looked back at her, so lost in inconceivable rage that it couldn't speak. Instead, it let out a hellish scream, and leapt.

Anna had the blood soaked hat in a tight grip, and thrust it into the water gushing from the pipe. The goblin gasped while in the air. Anna dodged underneath the water, holding the hat in place, as the goblin careered into wall. The goblin writhed on the floor, gasping for air and clawing at his head. He made no other sounds as he twisted on the floor, occasionally reaching for its hat, only a few feet away.

The goblin lay still. Once Anna could no longer see the blood-pink tinge to the water, she pulled the hat out of the water and cast it to the ground.

Turning the water off, she stepped up to the woman who was tied to the wall. Checking her pulse, she could feel a faint throb beneath her fingers. The man started screaming again, wriggling at his bonds. Anna ignored him while she pulled at the woman's bonds. After about a minute, Anna laid her gently on the floor. That done, she then went to the man, who was still pulling at the bonds around his wrists.

'Easy there, tiger.' She said, as she started working them loose. The un-named guy was in a business suit, now dirty and scruffy from being hauled through the sewers. The bonds around his wrists were tight, so she quickly untied the gag before she continued.

"What the fuck?!" the guy shouted. "What the hell is that?" He shouted, looking at the dead goblin.

'A patient from Etrest Asylum, he escaped last week.' Anna said whilst pulling at his bonds. 'I'm DS Emily Clarke, with the London Met. Criminal Investigation Department.' With a final tug, the bonds came free and the guy dropped a few inches to the ground.

'Are you injured?' She asked in a business like tone.

'No.' He said, 'But I don't get it. He was on the floor, you weren't touching him. You just had his hat in the water.'

'He's deranged, thinks he's a goblin that needs to keep his hat wet with blood. And I was touching him; I had my foot on his neck. Don't worry, he'll be okay when I get him back to the hospital.' Anna smiled.

The man suddenly looked very nervous. 'He's not going to wake up, is he?'

'Eventually. Listen, we're underneath a main manhole cover. If you climb up there, you should be able to get help. That woman's lost a lot of blood and needs an ambulance.'

'What? But, why can't you call for one?' He stammered.

'Because I'm under four foot of cement, is why.' She said impatiently. 'I could climb up and call for one though, would you mind waiting with him while I go?' Anna asked, nodding at the body of the goblin.

'No, no! It's fine.' The guy shouted, making his way to the metal rungs on the wall. As his head disappeared onto the street above, Anna spun around to the side of the goblin. Its hat washed clean of blood, the goblin most certainly wouldn't be coming back to life.

'Come on you son of a bitch.' Anna muttered, shaking his shoulders. 'Go 'poof' already.'

Anna could hear the commotion from the street above: bursts of shouting and traffic beeping their horns.

Anna's hand went through the goblin. His body was no longer solid, and was fading into the sewer floor.

'Yes!' Anna quietly muttered. Turning on her heel she sprinted for the entrance tunnel that she had come in from. She picked up her discarded shuriken on the way and disappeared into the dark.

'Shit!' There was fumbling and more swear words from the dark before Anna's phone lit the passage way. The coverings of the sewers tunnels inspired a much slower, more careful pace back to where she had entered the sewers.

As she pulled herself up on the street, she could hear the sirens of the approaching ambulances. With a smile born of a job well done, she picked up her coffee, right where she left it, and not entirely cold. Via a route that kept her clear of the ambulance attended seen behind her, Anna continued her jaunt round London, doing her best to wipe off the sewer-sludge on her boots while she went.

A few hours later saw her outside the door to Robert's house. Sliding in and dropping her shopping bags on the floor, she called out a loud 'Hey honey, I'm home!'

There was an unappreciative grunt from the living room.

'Ah, Robert, you could pretend to be glad I'm back.' Anna laughed as she walked into the living room, 'You're not going to believe what happened to me today.'

Robert was not in the living room. Slumped in a tatty arm-chair with an icepack resting on his head and two blood shot eyes was Thomas. He grunted at her.

'What the hell happened to you? You look like crap.' She said.

'You smell like crap.' He muttered, doing his best not to move. 'And you're not going to believe what happened to me today.'


	6. Ghost Busters

Tom and Charlotte were armed with flashlights. The lights to the store room were on, but they were too dim to make out some of the labels on the crates and boxes.

'I'd read that ghosts emitted an electromagnetic field, but I wouldn't have thought that there were so many that they made detectors for them.' Charlotte called out to Tom whilst checking the dates on the crates.

'Electromagnetic fields are incredibly common, and broad.' Tom called back from another part of the large store room. 'It can include radio waves, micro waves, up to U.V. and X-rays; so a detector is actually quite easy to find. When did you say you first noticed things happening?'

'About six weeks ago. We'd just had a big delivery, so instead of thinking something odd was happening, we were all just getting really angry with it.' Charlotte muttered. 'Ha! I've found them. I need to talk to Storage; these crates shouldn't have been left here.'

Tom jogged over to where she was standing. There were two large crates stacked on the top of one long crate at the bottom. On top of the other crates were smaller packages and boxes. All of them had been numbered, labelled and dated.

Tom pulled his phone from his pocket and looked at the EMF indicator.

'Anything?' Charlotte asked. Tom just shook his head.

'Do the remains generate an EMF, or is it just the ghost?' She asked.

'The ghost is tied to its remains, so they should produce something that we could pick up.' Tom muttered. He was staring at the crates with a concentrated scowl.

'In the stuff I'd been reading, it says that we have to burn the bones. Is that right?' Charlotte didn't look to happy about the idea.

'If that's what you were going to do, you'd have to salt them first to purify them.' Tom replied. 'What's in the bottom crate?'

'Sarcophagus. There's nothing special about it. We've been sent it by Liverpool Museum to investigate links to the Bakenkhonsu sarcophagus. We've left it here until it can be properly photographed and studied.' She answered.

'Right then.' Tom said, matter-of-factly, as he started to take the other crates off it.

'What are we doing?' Charlotte asked nervously.

'The stone of the sarcophagus could be enough to block the EMF. We're going to have to take a look.' Tom looked at Charlotte, who hadn't yet moved to help him.

'Sarcophagi are quite hardy, Charlotte, you know we won't damage it.' He said with a smile.

'Uh, okay.' She muttered. 'But you can do the salting and burning.' She said firmly.

Tom laughed, 'I have no intention of setting fire to anything.' Charlotte was moving a box off of a crate with a confused expression.

'But you said that...'

'I said, "If that's want you were going to do." It's most certainly not the only way to do it. If you ask me, salting and burning is the domain of over-enthusiastic cowboys who like solutions without having to think too much.' Tom grumbled. 'They generally also like to blow things up.'

'Oh. So what are you going to do?' Charlotte asked. They had moved all the smaller boxes, and were now moving the two smaller crates, one at a time.

'Depends on the ghost: there's always a reason why they're here. If we can figure that out, we might just be able to help it along.' Tom said as he put the crate down.

'How often does that work?' Charlotte said whilst trying to get her breath back.

'Uh, not very, I admit. There are other things you can do: it's possible to exorcise them, you can bind them, banish them from an area.' The last crate made a clunk as they put it down.

'Right then.' Charlotte looked at the crate, 'I'll open it.' She said, determination set into her face.

'Put this on first.' Tom had pulled out a short necklace from his bag. 'They're amethyst, linked together with iron.' Tom moved behind Charlotte and fastened the clasp; it fit snugly around her neck, a large piece of amethyst rested over the nape of her neck. 'Salt and iron are two of the biggest things that ghosts will do quite a lot to avoid. Amethyst is a handy ghostly defence, but let's hope we don't need it.'

'It's also, quite pretty.' Charlotte stuttered. 'I should probably, you know, see what's in here.'

'Let's do it.' Tom said with a grin.

'Do you have any protection?' Charlotte asked.

'Excuse me?' Tom stared, dumbfounded.

'Like this?' She rested a hand on the amethyst around her neck.

'Oh! Ha, uh.' Tom floundered for a second as his thoughts rearranged themselves to make sense. 'kind of, not like that. I'm allergic to iron, so that wouldn't help too much, and amethyst isn't really my colour.' He said with a wink. 'You ready?'

'The top shouldn't be fastened on. Everything is opened for inventory when it first comes in.' She explained as she took one end of the crate.

'On three: one, two, three!' Tom counted. On three, they both lifted the lid off and dropped it behind the crate. The sarcophagus was quite plain, for a sarcophagus. It was a neat, grey stone. There were no sculptures attached to it, just neat hieroglyphics across its top, with a carving in the middle. Tom ran a hand reverently over the carving of Anubis.

'Damn I've missed this.' He smiled, looking at Charlotte. He dropped his bag to the floor so he could reach over the sarcophagus unhindered. 'So what, uh, 1500BCE?'

'Close: if this is linked to other sarcophagus, it's more likely to be 1200 BC, so 19th dynasty.' She said with a grin. 'You know,' Charlotte brushed some of the polystyrene packaging off the top of the sarcophagus, 'they're advertising for a research specialist, I think it's in research and acquisitions.'

Tom's hand had stopped moving, his eyes fixed to the carvings.

'I don't think it would fit with my current lifestyle.' Tom looked up and laughed, 'Besides, I've no experience in doing a nine to five.'

'That wouldn't be a problem Tom; you'd blow them away at the interview.' Charlotte said.

'Here, help me lift this.' He said, getting ready to lift the stone lid.

Tom and Charlotte took an end each. 'On three.' He said.

'Bend from the knees; this is going to be heavy.' Tom nodded,

'One.' There was a familiar ringing from Tom's EMF detector. 'I think we've caught someone's attention'. He said.

'Let's go again. One, two...' Tom barely finished counting before he was sent careering head over heels away from the sarcophagus, landing in a heap by the wall. Charlotte had been knocked backwards a few feet. Sprawled on the floor, she sat upright as quickly as she could and shouted for Tom.

Tom groaned as he hauled himself up right. 'I'm good.' He started walking towards Charlotte, who had suffered a much less severe reaction to trying to open the sarcophagus.

A woman appeared in between them. She was tall and thin, long curly blonde hair fell down her back: she was quite beautiful. Her jeans and t-shirt were modern, not the Egyptian style that Tom had been expecting. She was also, quite see-through.

'Uh, ghost!' Charlotte called out.

The woman turned to face Tom. There were dark circles around her eyes, and dark purple bruises covered her throat.

'You won't touch me again!' She screamed. Tom held the small cross at his neck with one hand and pushed the other out towards the ghost. The force of the ghosts attack pushed Tom backward a couple of feet, but he did not fall. The ghost looked confused, then incredibly angry.

'Wait! I don't want to hurt you.' Tom shouted at her, 'Tell me what happened.'

'You know what happened!' She screeched. She dove at Tom, who leapt to the side just in time. The woman disappeared into the wall, and then there was silence.

Tom started to run back to Charlotte. Halfway there, he fell to the floor and was spun to face the ceiling. The ghost was hovering above him, an angry leer on her face.

'Don't worry my lovely one,' she drawled in a mocking tone, 'this'll only hurt for a time.' Her hand disappeared through the skin of Tom's belly. She smiled as Tom screamed, pinned to the floor.

There was a flash of light on rust and purple and the ghost vanished in a wisp of vapour.

Tom rolled over, pressing his hands to his stomach.

'Oh Tom, are you okay?' Charlotte asked.

'What happened?' Tom groaned.

'I took a swipe at her with this.' Charlotte swung the iron and amethyst necklace from her fingers.

Tom laughed, 'Good girl! We're not done yet though.' Charlotte helped Tom to his feet. 'She's lost to rage; it looks like she was strangled.'

'The guy who delivered these from Liverpool, he was really creepy. He kept calling me my lovely one. It's circumstantial, but not outrageous to think that he could be involved.' Charlotte said. Tom nodded and made his way back to the sarcophagus.

'That makes sense. It provides an explanation as to why she doesn't like me so much, as opposed to you.' He said, still clutching his stomach. 'Damn, that really hurts.'

'How long will she be gone for?' Charlotte asked, close by Tom's side.

'Not long enough.' Tom mumbled. 'There's lighter fluid and a lighter in my bag.'

'Over-enthusiastic cowboy it is.' Charlotte said as she dug through the bag.

'I feel like such a rookie doing it. This is not best 'ghost-busting practice' Dr. Knight, and most certainly won't be on the exam.' He laughed as he gestured for Charlotte to pass him a white crystal from the bag.

'I'll be sure to bear that in mind.' She said with a smile. 'What's the stone for?'

There was a faint scream, so quiet it almost wasn't there.

'Payback.' Tom said.

The scream was getting louder and louder, like it was approaching. Fast.

She appeared at a run in front of Tom. She slashed her hands at his face, but Tom hit out at her hand with the white quartz. There was a spark and the two were thrown backwards. Tom was up and on his feet quickly. The ghost was stunned and surprised, but it flew into another rage as Charlotte tried to heave the lid off the sarcophagus.

Charlotte was knocked backwards into the crates that they had moved earlier. The amethyst necklace skidded across the floor.

Tom clenched the quartz tight in his hand, muttering words under his breath. His eyes were fixed on the ghost.

The ghost glared at him with rage. Tom kept reciting. The woman seemed to be struggling. She was walking towards Tom as if she was carrying an incredible weight, her arms didn't move: as if they were bound to her side. Tom's voice was strained; his words seemed to take an incredible amount of effort.

When she was no more than two yards from Tom, she could no longer move herself forward. Holding the quartz tight in his hand, Tom slumped a little. He moved around the ghost to kneel at Charlotte's side. Charlotte was beginning to come-around, there was a lump on her head that would really hurt later, but Tom guessed she would be okay.

With a frustrated snarl, the ghost had spun herself around. Her arms were shaking with rage. Tom looked doubtfully at the heavy lid to the sarcophagus. He pulled his bag over to him and emptied it out onto the floor. Crystals and bottles scattered onto the floor, along with other odd hunting paraphernalia.

He pulled at the lid to some holy water and emptied it onto the red slate floor. The ghost was beginning to slowly fade away.

Tom clenched the quartz tighter in his hand and shouted 'Ligo!' The ghost screamed in frustration as it was held fast.

Moving quickly, he poured rock salt into the water and drew a circle in the mixture.

_'__Dá mbeifeá chomh láidir le crann darach, gheobhadh an bás an ceann is fearr ort.' He began, a lilt to his accent. He slammed the hand with the quartz face down into the sodden circle as he continued the words._

___The ghost howled. It was an unearthly noise that Tom wouldn't forget, and Charlotte's eyes flicked open at its horror._

___Small objects span through the air, as the ghost howled in rage. Tom continued the words; under the ghost's howls they almost sounded like they were meant to be sung. The ghost's eyes were bleeding; her arms were now free, clutching at her throat, trying to pull away hands that weren't there._

___A metal figurine flew across the room and smacked Tom squarely on the top of the head. For a couple of seconds he stumbled on the words, but picked up again quickly. The water and salt was boiling, its vapour was pulled to the ghost, encircling like chains. _

_'__No, don't, please!' the ghost was begging the memory of her murderer. Tom's vision was blurred a little, the pain from his hand keeping him focused._

___The swirl of vapour suddenly sped inside of the ghost. The ghost stopped shouting and screaming: a bloodied tear ran down her face, and she smiled. _

___With a loud rushing sound, like a strong wind, the ghost exploded outwards in vapour and steam._

___Tom slumped to the floor, carefully taking his burnt hand off the floor._

_'__Are we done?' Charlotte asked from her position on the floor._

_'__Oh yeah, we are definitely done.' Tom muttered. He'd stood up and moved over to the sarcophagus. With a heave, he lifted the bottom and moved it to the side, so the lid was at an angle. At the bottom of the sarcophagus was a pile of bones. Charlotte moved to Tom's side._

_'__Oh my God, what happened to them?' She asked._

_'__After she was killed, the body was burnt. It takes a really hot fire to destroy bones, so he must have thought this was a good dumping ground.' Tom said, looking at the charred remains._

_'__What do we do?' Charlotte asked. _

_'__How are you feeling? You took a nasty fall.' Tom asked, looking at the bump on her head._

_'__I'll be fine, worst case scenario: mild concussion.' She waved his hands away from her head._

_'__Well then, we're going to need a reason why you found the body.' Tom said._

_'__That's easy: I was interested in the sarcophagus and wanted to have a look before Renovations got it. They won't like it, but the body and investigation will mean I won't get sacked.' Charlotte said._

___Tom smiled, 'Good. Well let's get this cleaned up then.' _

_'__Tom, I can manage.' Charlotte said, with a concerned smile, 'You look awful, and you're bleeding.' She pointed at Tom's nose. _

___Tom used his hand to wipe the blood from his nose. 'Exorcism can do that.' He said. _

_'__Seriously, I'll be fine.' She said._

_'__You aren't worried about ghosts?' He said, only half-joking._

_'__If I find one, I know who to call.' She said with a genuine smile. She put her arms around his neck and gave him a hug. 'It was kind of weird; when you were doing that exorcism, the lights made your eyes look purple.'_

___Tom chuckled and hugged her back. _

_'__With all the stuff that's about to kick-off here, I'm not going to have time to do any research for you any time soon.' Charlotte muttered._

_'__That's fine.' Tom said, 'If you do come across anything, you'll let me know?' He asked._

_'__You bet.' Charlotte smiled._

___With that, Tom made his way through the store room, closing the door behind him._

_'__Son of a bitch!' His shoulders slouched and he held his hand to his chest. With his uninjured hand he touched the bump on his head gently and winced. _

___Tom headed for the museum exit, and thought about the journey back to Robert's house through commuter filled London. He groaned. _


	7. Do you know where my passport is?

Chapter 7: Do you know where my passport is?

Robert slammed the door closed behind him. He hated shopping, and shopping in London always made him grumpy.

He marched into his kitchen and dropped his bags onto the kitchen worktop.

'Robert?' Anna's voice asked.

'No, it's bloody Father Christmas! Who did you think it was?' he shouted.

'Just checking.' Anna's voice mumbled.

Robert finished slamming his food shopping into the appropriate cupboards and poured himself a cup of tea. After the ceremonial first gulp and relieved sigh he marched into the living room, from where Anna's incorporeal voice had come.

'Sweet Jesus, what happened to you two?' Robert asked the two. Anna was lying flat out, face down on the settee with an ice pack on the bottom of her back. Tom was slouched in an armchair with a frozen pack of peas on top of his head. There was a packet of aspirin and paracetamol between them.

'Goblin.' Anna muttered into the settee.

'Ghost,' Thomas mumbled whilst looking at the television, 'followed by London commuters.'

'Now that you can have some sympathy for.' Robert smiled. Thomas pointed to the television that was halfway through "Loose Women". Colleen Nolan was talking about something that made her angry to a panel of other women Tom didn't recognise.

'Robert, make them go away.' Tom said, his hand waving uselessly at the remote two feet away on the floor.

Robert walked to the television and turned it off. 'So what happened?'

'One crazy Redcap: dead. Two Londoners: saved. Shuriken: hell yeah.' With her head still in the cushions, Anna held the shuriken belt to her side. Robert took it and pulled one of the stars from its place.

'Cheung's work.' He said. 'I've been trying to get him to show me how he works silver like that for nearly fifteen years.' Robert dropped the shuriken on the floor by Anna's head. "And what happened to you?"

'Commuters.' Tom mumbled.

'Before the commuters.' Robert asked.

'Ghost: much easier to deal with; you can't banish a commuter.'

'Iron works on them though.' Anna's muffled voice contributed. Robert barked out a laugh.

'Murdered girl's bones hidden in a sarcophagus at the museum. It was one of the more rushed banishings I've ever worked.' Tom held up the hand that was resting on the frozen peas to emphasise. Robert took his hand by the wrist to look at the burnt skin on his palm.

'Looks sore.' He said, then poked Tom's palm with his finger. Tom yelped, snatching his hand back from Robert. 'But it'll heal fine. Suppose that's something about using salt in the banishing, reduces the risk of infection.'

'I'm sure that's exactly what they had in mind when then they made the ritual.' Tom mumbled, resting his hand on top of the peas again. 'Ghost girl did interrupt any research we had planned. Charlotte's going to be busy with the police for awhile.'

'That's a shame, I'd have liked to have had some answers.' Robert replied. He sat him self down on a chair near Tom and took another gulp of tea.

A series of muffled noises came from where Anna was laying on the settee.

'What?' Robert shouted at her.

Anna lifted her head up from the cushions, 'I said: I take it you haven't had any calls then.' She finished the sentence with an 'oof' and let her head fall into the sofa.

'No, no I haven't.' Robert said quietly. 'I wouldn't mind the waiting so much if we just knew some more details.'

Anna mumbled something into the sofa and Tom just stared at the blank television screen.

'What the hell are you two poofs playing at? If a ghost and a goblin have got you acting like you're half dead, you need to toughen up! Lilith is strolling the globe, Hell is coming to play and they ain't going to call time because you babies need to catch your breath.' Robert shouted at them both from his chair. His mug of tea was shaking in his hand.

Anna sighed, 'We know, Robert.'

'We were just hoping though,' Tom mumbled 'that if you felt sorry for us, you'd cook dinner.'

Robert spun to look at Anna who had looked up from the settee to Robert with a big cheesy grin. He looked back at Tom, who gave him a sly wink.

'Ya bloody beggars.' Robert mumbled. 'Unbelievable, that's what you are.' he stood up and walked out of the room to the kitchen. 'I cooked this morning, been shopping through damn rush hour…'

Tom and Anna couldn't hear the rest of Robert's angry grumble, but when they heard the first pan hit the stove they grinned and high-fived.

Tom jumped up and turned the television back on. The news came on, showing down town London alive with reporters and police.

The female reporter announced that the 'suspect who earlier kidnapped two people is still at large. He is believed to have escaped from a local asylum, although the police are still investigating.'

'Was that your goblin?' Tom asked. Anna pulled herself up right, pulling the icepack up with her so she was leant back against it.

'Yeah, that guy in the back that looks like he's going to be sick was the kidnap guy; probably taking all the credit, git.' Anna stuck a singular finger up at the television screen.

The phone rang, but was quickly picked up in the kitchen by Robert.

'So, this Lilith.' Anna started, 'She's, pretty big and bad.'

Tom sat down, twisted in his chair so he could look at Anna properly. 'As far as these things go, yeah, she's the big and the bad. Tom pulled a plastic bag out from underneath his chair and threw Anna a can of beer from it and took one for him.

'There are bigger demons, but you'd be talking super bad then.' Tom said

'McLovin style Superbad?' Anna asked in a hopeful voice.

'No. There is definitely no Demon McLovin.' Tom said with a smile and shake of the head.

'Didn't think so.' Anna sighed, 'Do you think we can do it?'

'Lilith is a big bad, but she's still a demon.' Tom said with a reassuring smile. 'No demon that anyone is aware of can manifest on Earth.'

'So,' Anna interrupted, 'she's still got to wear some poor bastard as a meat suit.' Tom nodded with a smile.

'And all the problems that come with it. She'll be vulnerable to Devil's Traps, with enough power she could be exorcised.' Tom said.

'And the rest: shooting, burning, falling, slicing.' Anna listed with enthusiasm. 'Okay, I'm feeling a little better about this.'

Tom laughed, 'Good! Anna, this is going to be hard, the hardest thing we've done, but it's possible.'

The smile fell off Anna's face. 'You know I don't like them, I don't trust them, but we're going to need help on this. I don't just mean of the financial kind either.'

Tom sighed. Cracking his knuckles he looked at the television.

'I've already thought about it.' Tom said.

'I don't understand why you don't like them. They scare the crap out of me sure, but I don't get them. They pay us to hunt; you know how other Hunters live. Not only do we not have to delve into the glamorous world of credit fraud, gambling, and you know, that other one.'

'Investment?' Tom asked with a smile.

Anna nodded dismissively, 'Yeah, that one. Not only do we not need that, but we get paid damn well! They turn up some good ritual stuff for you and they pretty much leave us to it.' Anna tried to gage Tom's expression, but his face was set and didn't flinch.

'They're an old group, and this could be the time when they could help us the most. Tom?'

'Hey, I get it.' Tom said, with a reassuring smile, but a sag in his shoulders and sad eyes. 'They give us stuff and keep clear, and it's all good: what's not to like?' Tom paused for a second or two before he carried on.

'The Masons, they are old, older than I think most realise. What they've passed on to me, the Blessings, banishings, all that has been useful and at times, simply brilliant. But their interest in us has never been explained. They know more than they're telling, Anna and what it is that they're hiding, well, that scares the crap out of me.'

'I get that,' Anna said, 'but this isn't Surprise Surprise: the screen isn't going to slide back with the worst possibility being an overweight heifer with bad teeth. We need to know what's behind the screen Tom, we need to know how to beat it.'

Robert walked into the room with the phone in his hand.

'That was a mate calling from Italy. He's tracked the last location in Italy to the Pisa airport, where it left the country.' He sighed.

'Where'd it go?' Anna asked excitedly.

'America. Last location has it in a chartered airline bound for San Francisco International Airport.'

'Robert, we've got it. Why the grumpy face?' Anna asked.

'America is the hotspot. I'd guessed that's where it was going, but I was hoping I'd be wrong.' Robert slumped into his chair again.

'Most of the seals breaking have been in America. It's also where Lilith is spending most of her time. It's just bringing it home that this is the real deal.' He said.

'Don't worry Robert, we'll get it back, no seals will be broken, and we'll be fine.' Tom said, passing Robert a beer.

'I know, I know.' He breathed, 'You'll have to leave tomorrow. If you get an early flight, you'll only be a couple of hours behind it.'

'On it.' Anna said. She jumped off the settee and up the stairs to the computer to arrange flights.

'We need to plan how you're going to track it down once you get there.' Robert continued.

'Anna?' Tom shouted, 'We're gonna need a car too!' Robert nodded, at Tom.

'That'll be helpful.' He said. Robert put his head in his hands and rubbed his temples. He looked up at Tom, 'This is going to be a long night.'

'I'll say. Do you know where my passport is by any chance?' Tom asked with a pondering expression.

The rest of the evening was spent planning: planning how to find the stone, planning how to destroy it, planning safe houses, planning how to get weapons, planning various alternate identities etcetera.

Robert had called Cheung and explained the situation to him. Cheung agreed that the urgency was great; he would work on Anna's sword immediately and send it as soon as he was finished.

It wasn't long before the clock struck midnight.

'Robert, our flight leaves in nine hours, and we still need to sleep.' Tom said.

'Yeah, I'd hate to miss the end of the world because we'd slept in.' Anna said.

They stood up and bid Robert a goodnight, then trundled up to sleep. Robert looked at the plans and notes on the table. With a shake of his head, he sighed and pulled himself up from the table and fell asleep on the settee.

The next morning seemed far too soon for them both. With bleary eyes they packed the few belongings they had and were sat around the table again, coffee in hand. Even Anna, whose early morning cheerfulness was infamous wasn't so 'full of the joys of spring'. It was 5am and the sun hadn't risen properly yet.

Robert took a deep breath, and mid yawn, there was a knock at the door.

The three of them looked at each other, Robert seemed to have frozen mid yawn: his hand half way to his mouth. Robert pointed at Anna's katana, neatly packaged and delivered two hours previously. The only visitor any of them had been expecting.

Anna and Tom walked straight to the front door, Anna had her sword in hand, Tom his hand gun. Robert emerged from the kitchen with a sawn-off shot gun. He made a few gestures to Anna and Tom, who quickly moved in the directions he'd pointed, Anna seamlessly blended into the shadows of the early morning. Tom hid behind a door.

Robert held the shotgun behind the door, and carefully opened it. From where they were stood, Anna and Tom could not see who it was, but could hear her business like tone, clear and sharp.

'You must be Robert. I have to say it's a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Davina, I represent an interested party and am here to talk to Anna and Tom.'

'Is that so?' Robert asked, he opened the door just a little and flicked the shot gun up so it was level with her chest.

'Would you mind explain how you found me?' he asked, sounding quite civil.

The lady called Davina didn't manage to produce any coherent sounds, just 'but' and 'I' for a few seconds before Anna and Tom came into view.

'Robert, would you mind asking Davina to come in, it's a very cold morning.' Tom said calmly. Robert grunted at Davina and then walked away, disappearing into the kitchen.

Anna closed the door behind Davina as she carefully stepped into the house. Once Robert had disappeared from view she pushed her shoulders back and looked at Anna and Tom with a renewed sense of purpose.

'Well, that was bracing.' She said. Davina was shorter than Anna by a few inches, her hair fell just to her shoulders and was dark brown and naturally straight. She was dressed in smart black trousers and a dark purple shirt; her eyes were a brilliant shade of green.

'He can be like that sometimes.' Tom said.

'Most of the time,' Anna added, 'it's very nice to meet you Davina.' Davina seemed to relax a little and smiled at Anna.

'The Masons send their greetings. To answer Robert's questions, I'm afraid I don't know. I'm just a messenger.'

'It's okay, I'm not surprised that the Masons know about this.' Tom said. 'I don't mean to be rude, but we need to be leaving soon. What was it that you've been sent for?'

'It's come to our attention that you're heading to the U.S. and we thought we could be of help.' Davina said, 'you have equipment that is not going to make it through customs: swords, guns and the like. We can help transport these. We've also arranged for a car, hotel and this, Tom, is for you.' Davina handed him an A4 sized sealed envelope.

'It's something that our researchers have been working on. Their not sure exactly what it is, but the flight to California is quite long, and we thought you mind need something to keep you entertained.'

Tom took the envelope; the look of intrigue was obvious to any who could see him.

'We contacted the airlines to confirm your booking.' Davina said, 'I hope you don't mind, but we upgraded it.' Davina passed the first class tickets to Anna.

'Oh no, we don't mind at all.' Anna all but snatched the tickets from Davina's hand. 'There will be two soldiers at Heathrow by the check in desk. Take them one bag with all of your items that may cause problems at customs. It will be included in an armed transport to The States and will arrive at San Francisco airport two hours after you.

'Genius! Thank you so much.' Anna shouted.

Davina smiled, 'I'm glad you're happy. After the reception, I was a bit worried about telling you we'd made arrangements without asking you.'

'Davina,' Anna laughed, 'any time you want to buy me a first class ticket to, well, anywhere, feel free.'

'These are appreciated Davina, please pass that along.' Tom said stoically. The envelope was now in his pocket, unopened.

Robert emerged from the kitchen. 'Well, as much as I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, what is it that you want?' Robert glared at the young woman who was stood in his porch way.

Davina braced her shoulders again and mustered a steely glare. 'We are aware of how serious this situation is, and want Tom and Anna to arrive ready and properly prepared. I am sorry Robert if this doesn't meet with your approval.' Robert raised a single eyebrow at the dark haired woman.

'You realise how serious this is do you?' he asked.

Anna caught Tom's eye, which clearly conveyed the words 'uh oh' perfectly.

'Listen folks.' Anna said louder than she had meant to. Tom moved quickly into the living room. 'Tom and I need to be going, so Davina, thank you so much for the tickets. Robert, you're a legend, as always. Thank you so much for the food.'

'And the information.' Tom added as he returned with three bags in tow. 'We wouldn't know what we're doing or where we're going without you.'

'But with that, I think we should be going. You know, what with the apocalypse prevention and all that.' Anna laughed overly jovially. Anna put her hands on Davina's shoulders to manoeuvre her out the door with them.

'I'm sure you'll have a lovely flight.' Davina put an emphasis on 'sure' and winked at Tom. 'But I need to talk to Robert before I leave.' She sounded incredibly unenthusiastic about it.

'You and I have got nothing we need to talk about.' The note in Robert's voice was particularly final.

'Robert, please?' Anna asked with puppy dog eyes. It took a second, but Robert sagged and nodded.

'Fine, but don't expect to be allowed to meddle with my affairs woman.' He stabbed the air between them with a pointed finger.

'Ah, you're a gem Rob.' Anna said and hugged him. 'We'll behave ourselves, Scout's honour'. She laughed.

'Look after yourself while we're gone.' Tom said, shaking Robert by the hand.

'Ha! You're off to fight a demon and I'm left here watering the plants. I wish I were going with you.' He mumbled.

'You could.' Davina said, looking at Tom and Anna for their response.

'There are a lot of things here that are unfinished, and a lot of Hunters I'm still doing favours for. No, but if you need me, you call me, got it?' He jabbed with a pointed finger again at Tom and Anna.

'You got it.' Anna smiled.

Anna took her bag off Tom and through it over her shoulder. With the two other bags, Tom followed Anna out the door and got into the car. With several loud beeps that undoubtedly woke the neighbours, Anna sped off towards the main road, speed limits being things that happened to other people.

Davina closed the door behind them.

'Don't expect any honeyed words from me Mason.' Robert said from behind her. 'What is it you want?'

'I was hoping we could be friends, Robert.' Davina said. She looked at him over her shoulder. Her bright green eyes were gone; nothing but darkness in their place. Robert had time to notice the knife she held in her hand before it disappeared into his left side up to her hand.

'But I guess this will have to do.' She grunted as she pulled the knife across his abdomen.

Robert fell to his knees; he held his entrails in his hands as they spilt to the floor.

He was lying on the floor, although he didn't remember falling.

He gasped, and then was gone.


	8. Obligatory Flashback

Chapter 8: Obligatory Flashback

The car had done nothing other than speed up since it had left the house. Tom was convinced that the first time Anna had used the brakes was when they pulled into a space at Gatwick Airport. Anna was out of the car and at the boot before Tom had gotten to his feet.

'Excited much?' he laughed.

'First class Tommy boy!' Anna shouted at him with a huge smile. 'First class!'

Tom pulled his bag from the back seat. 'Don't call me Tommy'

Anna didn't respond. She pulled the two other bags from the boot and slammed it closed. The massive smile hadn't gone away. Tom smiled at her and shook his head.

'Have you got your...' he started to ask, but Anna waved her passport at him before he could finish. She all but marched to the main building before she stopped.

'What's our check-in desk?' She asked, looking around for an information board.

'I'm going to guess that it's the one next to the two army guys over there.' Tom said, pointing at two uniformed men.

'First class and army men,' Anna sighed. 'When I meet Lilith, remind me to thank her. You know, before I take her head off.'

Tom laughed, 'Will do.'

Anna walked over to where the army men were standing. On cue, Anna tossed her long hair over one shoulder with a quick flick of her head as she caught their eye.

She came to a stop in front of them with Tom just behind her.

'Miss.' The shorter of the two nodded his head at Anna.

'Can we help you?' The other asked.

'I believe you gentlemen have been expecting me.' Anna said with a smile that would make a sailor blush.

'Excuse me?' The taller of the two said. He had a stereotypical buzz cut and was doing his utmost to look surly.

Anna held up the bag with their equipment in it and raised an eyebrow at Sergeant Surly. The other soldier, much younger than his colleague looked shocked.

'You guys work for M15?' he whispered with surprise and awe. Anna burst out laughing at the soldier.

'We try and keep that hushed up.' Tom said, looking at the younger soldier who was getting stern looks from the other solider.

'And try not to look too surprised! Perhaps you were expecting Pierce Brosnan in a tux?' Anna asked.

The soldier looked suitably abashed. 'No, sorry ma'am, I shouldn't have been so rash.'

'It's alright,' Anna said, touching his arm reassuringly. 'I don't suppose you gentlemen will be accompanying us on the plane will you?' Anna gave the young soldier's arm a firm squeeze before she let go.

'No, miss.' The older soldier said. 'We will be escorting equipment to the United States. We have been told to make sure that your equipment makes it to San Francisco in good time and be ready for pick up immediately when you arrive. Lieutenant Morgan,' he gestured to the other soldier, 'has been tasked to guard it personally.'

'Well, I'm sure it'll be in very good hands.' Anna lifted the bag to the lieutenant, almost caressing his hands as she did. Tom was trying really hard not to laugh at the young lieutenant, who was so desperately trying to form some form of sentence. Either that or he had forgotten how to breathe through his nose.

'It shall be there waiting for you when you arrive.' He eventually stuttered.

'I look forward to seeing you on the other side, Lieutenant Morgan.' Anna smiled, with a wink.

'Thank you, miss. If you'll excuse us, we need to get to our plane.' The older soldier said, and steered his younger companion away.

Anna watched them walk away and then looked at Tom with a grin. Tom laughed at the smile and shook his head.

'Pleased with yourself?' He asked.

'Immensely.' She said.

Anna and Tom checked themselves in, and made their way to the plane. The hostess who took their tickets and scanned them through the machine called another hostess over to her.

'Mr. Williams, Ms. Santora, we've been expecting you.' The new hostess greeted them. 'If you'd like to follow me, I'll take you to your seats.'

Anna's grin got even bigger. As the hostess turned away Anna elbowed Tom in the ribs.

'First class, Tommy boy!' she whispered.

'Don't call me Tommy.' He muttered back.

They were walked through the main part of the plane and through the red curtain to the front of the cabin.

Their hostess gestured at two seats. The seats themselves were huge, a television screen implanted into the chair in front of them. Two glasses of champagne were already poured.

'I hope these are okay for you.' She smiled, 'my name is Elena, and I'll be looking after you personally during the trip. If there is anything I can do, please let me know.'

'Thank you very much Elena.' Tom said, smiling at the hostess.

'Oh yes, thank you very much Elena.' Anna said, already in her seat, seeing how far it would lean back. Horizontal, as it turned out.

After three hours in the air, a massage, two glasses of champagne and half a movie about Chevy Chase and a dog, both Tom and Anna had acclimatised to the best service 37000 feet in the air had to offer.

Elena wandered over to Tom and Anna.

'Would you like to look at the menu for breakfast?' Elena asked, holding two leather bound menus.

Anna laid still, her chest gently rising and falling. Tom smiled and careful so as to not wake Anna, took a menu from his hostess.

'I think she'll be fine.' Tom muttered.

Anna was just a girl again. She was nine, running through oak panelled corridors, laughing at her imaginary game. From the shadows, a tall man in a dark suit watched and waited.

Anna watched as the little girl ran laughing down the huge corridors, a white blouse highlighting her flushed cheeks. The walls were decorated with artwork of incredible beauty, although little Anna never paid attention to the boring, framed artwork. She always liked something you could touch and feel, like the sculptures in the museum, those she thought were pretty, but she still hated going because she had to walk slowly, not touch and be quiet. Anna hated anything that didn't move at her speed, she didn't walk, she ran, if she couldn't touch it, then only her eyes said it was real and that wasn't enough. If she had to be quiet, then how did anybody know that she was there, that she existed?

The shadow was looming in a doorway, invisible to the nine year old child. His hands were poised at his side, and there was a suspended energy in his legs, ready to spring.

Anna turned a corner, coming to the porch of the house. The ceiling was domed and white, with marble cherubs smiling from its heavens. A huge spiral staircase with wrought-iron railings was in the middle of the room. On Anna's right, as she ran towards the staircase were the front doors. Massive features of the room, Anna knew these doors were not to be merely opened, but flung aside as one burst into the room. Or maybe, she fantasised, as she made her escape into the huge gardens she knew to be on the other side.

She grabbed one of the railings and through her weight as she jumped. She span twice through the air before she landed clumsily on her feet. Still laughing, she darted from the porch of the house down the corridor opposite the one she had come dashing out of.

The black suited figure waited. Quickly, he leapt from his hiding place and grabbed the little Anna from the floor, laughing as he ran with her back into the porch.

Anna screamed as the figure pulled her off her feet, out of her game. Squirming, she laughed as her father span her around in circles roaring like a monster.

'I'm sorry to interrupt.' A male voiced sounded across the large porch way. The main doors behind him were still barred shut.

Her father had dropped her quickly and stood between her and the newcomer.

'Declan?' The surprise in his tone didn't last long. 'What are you doing here?'

'I was in the area.' He shrugged. He wore an old, battered leather jacket and dark jeans. His hair was short and dark, a few grey hairs sprouting about the sides of his head. Anna bolted from behind the protective shadow of her father for Declan. With about three foot between them, Anna launched herself into the air at Declan.

'Whoa there!' Declan laughed as he caught the small girl and spun her around. Anna threw her head back and laughed, to busy enjoying the moment to notice her father's disapproving look.

Anna liked Declan. He was dangerous; he even had a weird tattoo on his arm. He was never clean shaven like her father. But most of all, he rode a motorbike, without a helmet.

'You just keep getting bigger!' He laughed as he put her back on the floor.

'Anna? Be a good girl and go play. Declan and I need to talk.' He father told her. Anna gave her father her best sulky expression, but he had his eyes fixed on Declan.

Anna skipped off down the corridor, and when she felt she was out of sight, doubled back and hid in a doorway. Watching from her hiding place, she watched as the two men made their way to her father's study. She strained her ears for the click of the door, and as she heard it darted to it on the tips of her toes.

She could hear very little through the thick oak of her father's study, but she grinned as she remembered her knew discovery. She ran through the corridors as if the monsters in Declan's stories were on her heels. 

She burst into one of the many unused rooms in the house. Forgotten bookshelves lined the walls; huge white sheets covered the furniture that Anna had never bothered to look at. Old, dusty and forgotten, these rooms had nothing to appeal to Anna except the possibilities of imagined adventure as she shimmied and crawled through the nooks and crannies of the antique furniture.

It was on one of these adventures that she had discovered the air vent above her father's study. Whilst the thick door meant that eavesdropping was quite difficult, if not impossible, the air vent made the crucial job of hearing things that weren't meant for her much easier.

Not wanting to alert any of the help, she left the light to the room switched off, and closed the door behind her as she burst in. With the door closed behind her, the room was almost pitch-black; the only light was from the half moon through the window. With the pearl light, Anna managed to make her way without bump or injury to the grate on the wall. With little regard for the expensive blouse she wore, Anna lay flat out on the floor with her ear pressed against the grate.

'Preposterous! What could they possibly want here?' Her father never shouted, but when he was being stern with her, this was the voice he used.

'If I had to guess, I'd say they want something and think that it's here.' Declan said. Anna's admiration for him grew when she didn't hear any waver in his voice; whilst a thin man, her father always managed to be quite intimidating when he wanted to be.

'Preposterous, there is nothing here. Do you think I would allow something like this to endanger my family? My daughter?' His voice had gotten dangerously quiet, like he was growling the words.

'Not knowingly, it is most certainly possible that that is the very reason why it has been hidden here.' Declan's voice remained calm and centred.

'Be careful of whom you accuse.' Her father growled again. 'If anything were to bring them here, it would be you.'

'Now you need to be careful my friend.' Declan's voice was still calm, but even Anna felt the threat. 'I would not bring trouble to your door, you know that.

Whether there is something here they seek or not, they are coming. You must leave, now.'

'Even if this did make any sense, which it most certainly does not, I can't just up Anna and leave.' Her father's voice had lost the edge of anger, but she could tell he was still very irate.

'If I'm wrong, you'll only be gone a couple of days. If I'm right, you'll thank me that that is exactly what you did.' Declan responded.

Anna was desperately trying to figure out who they meant. The best she could come up with was the people who father worked with. The two that often came to the house were creepy and weird. Always in old suits that smelt funny, they would pat her on the head and talk at her like she was two.

Anna heard a pane of glass smash somewhere downstairs. There was an ear-splitting silence from the grate, and then a bustle of movement and a door being thrown open.

The smash had come from the sitting room downstairs. Eager to finally see who it was that intruded on her home and father's time, she ran to the door and carefully pulled it ajar.

Putting her practiced sneaking skills to use, she made her way down the stairs. As she made it to the main hallway, she heard talking coming from the sitting room, then her father started shouting.

Anna felt scared. Her father never shouted.

She ran the rest of the way, if there were someone in her home, she would shout at them too.

At the door to the sitting room, she peeked through the gap between the slightly open door and its frame. Two men were in the room, facing Declan and her father. Her father's shouting luckily covered the gasp she made as she saw the black nothing that covered their eyes.

After a couple of seconds the fear turned to a raging curiosity. Was he sick? Blind? Or where they like the contact lenses that the girls from school said they wanted?

The man opposite Declan lunged at him, and from there, it turned to chaos. Declan had pulled two foot-long blades from beneath the sleeves of his jacket and was whirling furiously with his opponent. Her father had pulled a gun from his jacket and had been about to fire before it was knocked from his hand. They were now fighting hand to hand furiously, her father now stood facing the door which she hid behind.

The man he was fighting caught her father off guard with a punch to his stomach. He grabbed him by the throat and hoisted him into the air. Her father's feet were dangling in the air, his face a dark red.

Anna was scared, but she was Anna Santora, and that was her father. She slowly made her way around the door never taking her eyes of her father or the other man. Declan had been thrown across a settee and had just managed to fight off the other intruder before regaining his feet.

Her fathers' eyes found hers, and the look on his face sagged. The man with sky-black eyes looked over his shoulder at her and smiled. Looking back to her father, he twisted his hand and dropped the corpse to the ground.

The intruder turned to face Anna.

Nine year old fingers pulled the trigger of her murdered father's gun.

The recoil knocked her backwards, and she slammed her head against the floor, but the bullet flew true. The exit wound blew out the back of the intruder's skull.

Her head hurt, and there was a building pain in her right arm. Using just her left, she pulled herself upright; Declan was at her side and wrapping her in his jacket. It had smelt of machine oil and cigar smoke.

'Declan?' She asked, confused and dazed.

'It's okay Anna, it's okay.' He whispered. He had picked her up and was moving towards the garage of the house. He snagged the car keys out of the side table as he walked.

'What happened?' She whispered, trying to put the pieces together. Where was her father?

'It's okay Anna, I'll tell you everything. We need to leave: it's not safe here.' He said.

'Father?' Tears laced the word. She knew where her father was.

'I'll tell you everything Anna, you deserve that.' He said. 'I think you'll be just fine.'

'Fine?' Anna mumbled.

'Anna?' His voice called

'Wha-?' Anna opened her eyes and saw Tom.

'I wasn't sure if you wanted me to wake you for food.' Tom said.

'What, you get altitude sickness? Of course I want food.' Anna stretched and wiped her eyes. 'What have we got?' she asked.

7


	9. And you are?

**Chapter 9: And you are?**

'Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats as we are about to commence our decent into San Francisco International. Local time is now 11:32am and a temperature of 66 degrees.' The captain's voice said over the speakers.

Tom looked at the notes that were laid out on his lap. The contents of the envelope that Davina had given him had definitely piqued his interest. There were sheets of notes, and chapters photocopied from relevant books and articles, but the main feature occupied just one full sheet of paper. It was a photograph of a page covered in drawings and symbols. Anna had mentioned that it looked familiar; she had made something quite similar when she was four.

Tom had ignored the remark. Tom had known that it was Aztec has soon as he had opened the envelope, but his usual talent for Nahuatl wasn't allowing him to progress with a translation as it normally did. He recognised they symbols on the page and knew what each of them meant, but the order they were in made no sense. Tom had spent nearly an hour just staring at them, hoping they would rearrange themselves into a sensible order.

'Getting anywhere?' Anna asked. Tom sighed and brushed all the papers back into the wallet.

'No, not yet. It's so frustrating, like trying to read a book that's written in English, but they're just random words put next to each other.' Anna smiled and rubbed his arm.

'You'll crack it. You always do.' She smiled.

'Thanks.' The seat-belt signs made a 'ping' sound as they lit up.

'He said it's 66 degrees, what's that in English?' Anna asked.

'English?' Tom laughed, 'uh, about 18 Celsius, so nice and warm.' Anna nodded her approval of the weather.

'So' Anna said, 'what do we do next?'

'Uh, I think this is the bit where we land.' Tom smiled. Anna held her side and gave the best silent laugh that she could before she twisted in her seat and started poking him in the ribs.

'Ow! Okay! Okay!' Tom laughed. 'When we land, we need to pick your stuff up, hopefully with no trouble. After that, Robert said one of his friends would be meeting us tomorrow to give us some up-to-date information.'

'Tomorrow?' Anna frowned. 'That means we'll be over a day behind the stone and the bastard that took it.'

'But we're on the right continent and on the right track.' Tom said. Anna raised a quizzical eyebrow. 'Optimism' Tom shrugged, 'I'm trying it out.'

The plane came to a standstill in the sun of North America. Tom and Anna were shown to the terminal before the hoards of holiday seekers clogged up the corridors of the plane.

'Love first class.' Anna muttered as she walked past a mum trying to organise three children whilst her husband struggled to wake up.

Their bags were ready and waiting for them in a separate section by baggage claim. Stood next to them was a young woman in a US army uniform. Her hair was pulled back into a no-nonsense ponytail, a stern expression on her face and pistol at her side. Behind her on a secure trolley was the bag they had handed over to the army in England.

'She looks a lot less fun than the last lot.' Anna muttered to Tom as they walked towards her. Tom smirked at her as they stopped in front of the dour faced women.

'Hi there!' Anna chirped at her.

Tom looked at the insignia on her arm, 'Uh, Corporal.' Tom added.

'Corporal Hadfield, Mr. Williams.' The woman nodded. 'We have your equipment as ordered.' The corporal stood to the side and handed Tom the bag from the trolley.

'That's very kind, thank you.' Tom smiled.

'Not a problem, Sir. Is there anything else?'

'No, tha-' Tom started.

'Actually,' Anna interrupted, 'might you be able to help us out? We don't technically start work here with federal authority until midnight, could you find out if the airport is recording their scans of passengers' hand luggage? If so, can we look at the scans from passengers who travelled from London airports for the past 48 hours?'

'I don't see that being an issue. Let me confirm with my commanding officer.' The corporal gave the couple a curt nod and walked off briskly.

'That's brilliant!' Tom whispered

'See: pretty and clever.' Anna winked at Tom.

'If we can find which bag the stone is in, we can find out what the demon carrying it looks like.' Tom mumbled to himself.

'And,' Anna continued, 'try and link that to whatever car they got into. If this stone is a big deal, I'm guessing someone was going to meet them here.'

'If they got into a taxi?' Tom asked.

'Tracking down the taxi, let alone hoping the driver remembers where they went would be, uh, difficult.' Anna said.

Only a few minutes passed before Corporal Hadfield returned and motioned for the pair to follow her. Through an inconspicuous door and down a well lit corridor, the corporal led them to a small room. One wall was filled with screens, showing every nook and cranny of the airport. A computer controlled all of the cameras, and a separate computer screen sat away from the other consoles.

'This is Tim Diggins.' The corporal said, gesturing to a middle aged security guard. 'He has been instructed to help you as best as he can.'

'Corporal, that's great, thank you.' Anna said with an air of authority. Corporal Hardwick gave another curt nod and left the room.

'Right, Mr. Diggins,' Tom said, putting their retrieved luggage in a corner. 'We need the scans of all the hand luggage-'

'For people coming from London in the past two days.' He interrupted, 'I've already got them on the computer monitor for you, starting with the most recent. There's been nearly thirty flights in the past two days, might take you a while to get through them.'

'If we can break them up onto two monitors we could get through them quicker.' Anna said.

Slowly but surely, Tom and Anna started to get through the scans of luggage. Tim Diggins turned out to be quite handy in their search, explaining some of the shapes they couldn't identify, or why some were see through and others were not.

'Gotcha!' Anna shouted. Frozen on screen was a solid black object, about twenty centimetres across.

Tom pushed his chair over next to Anna, 'It fits the dimensions we're looking for.'

'That's 'cause it's our stone!' Anna shouted, 'And about bloody time too, I'm exhausted!'

'Tim,' Tom asked, 'can you match this time with footage from another of the cameras?'

Tim slid over to the computer and entered the time and date into one of the main cameras. 'This says eleven a.m. yesterday morning.' Tim said, 'And that,' he flicked at the screen, 'is the woman you're looking for.'

The woman on the screen was quite short with brown curly hair and a grey suit. As she walked through the line, she picked up her shoulder bag from the x-ray.

'That is definitely big enough to fit our rock in.' Anna muttered.

'Fiver she gets into a taxi.' Tom said. The two high fived the bet without taking their eyes of the screens.

Tim was flipping between camera footage, following the woman through the airport. As she stepped outside, a plain black Sedan rolled up next to her. The women got in the back without so much as looking at the driver.

'Damn it.' Tom mumbled.

'Tim, we need the registration of that car please. Tom, you owe me a fiver.' Anna said quickly as she got up.

'It's printing now.' Tim pointed at the printer.

'Thanks Tim, you've been great.' Tom said. He picked up the printout as Anna collected her bags from the corner of the room.

'Oh, do us a favour Tim?' Anna said, 'Don't tell anyone about any of this would you?'

Tim nodded and mimed zipping his lips closed.

'Good lad.' Anna winked at him as she closed the door behind the two of them.

'That's good detective work.' Tom said

'What can I say, I'm a natural.' Anna said with a smile.

Together, they walked out of the airport's main entrance. Tom made his way to the road, ready to shout for a taxi when Anna whistled loudly at him.

'Wow, you're really not on form today.' Anna shouted to him, waving him back to her. 'Did you forget about the car?'

'What car?' Tom asked, confused. A young man in a suit ran up to Anna with a clipboard. She deftly scribbled the signature that she was currently using on the form. The young man dropped some keys into her hand, wished them both 'a nice day', and disappeared back into the office at the side of the airport.

'This car.' Anna stepped to the side, revealing her chosen car behind her.

Tom took a minute to stare at the car. He looked at Anna: 'Good. Subtle'.

'Screw subtle.' Anna replied. Looking at the car, she took a deep breath and sighed. 'This, is a first generation, 1973 Dodge Challenger.' Anna slowly walked around the car, tracing her hand over the metal work.

'Hello baby.' She whispered.

'Shall I leave you two alone?' Tom asked.

Anna didn't even look up, 'If you wouldn't mind.'

'Did you have to get a bright red one?'

'Don't listen to him, he's daft in the head.' Anna said to the car.

Anna unlocked the car and the boot. When Tom had loaded up their bags, he slid into the seat next to Anna. They keys were already in the ignition. She turned the key and the engine roared. Anna closed her eyes and revved the engine with a huge, satisfied smile on her face.

'Do you know how to get to the hotel?' Anna asked.

'I printed off directions-' Tom started

'Well, then lets take this baby for a spin.' Anna shifted into reverse, and after what was a gentle, controlled move out of the parking spot, sped forwards on to the road.

'What side of the road do they drive on?' Anna asked.

'Right! Right! Right!' Tom shouted, bracing himself against the dash board.

During a quiet moment whilst stopped at a traffic light, Tom unfolded the print-out of the Sedan's number plate and took a picture of it with his phone. A few minutes later, the picture along with a small message had been sent to Robert. With any luck, Tom thought, we'll have an idea about what it is we're looking for soon enough.

'Before we go,' Anna muttered, 'we are taking this baby for a proper drive. You just can't appreciate its beauty when it's all cooped up in a city.'

Tom's phone binged.

Anna gave a quick whistle, 'Damn, he's good. That was quick!'

'The Sedan was registered stolen two days ago; it was recovered early this morning near a warehouse district of the city.'

'Where's the warehouse?' Anna asked.

'Robert's sent me the address, I'm getting directions now.' He replied; his phone displayed a map of the city, a pulsing blue dot showed them where they were. A few seconds later, a purple line connected the dot with a red dot a few miles away.

'There we go!' Tom said, showing Anna the map.

Within fifteen minutes, the two were sitting on a road outside what looked like a disused warehouse plot. Three big warehouses were sat around a pot-holed car park big enough for the trucks and lorries that were once loaded up.

'You know, they could've just abandoned the car here.' Tom muttered.

'Or, they could be holed up in one of these warehouses and all we need to do is check to find out.' Anna replied as she got out of the car.

Anna tugged on her rough leather jacket and grabbed the weapons bag from the boot of the car. The katana was sheathed in its saya inside the base of the sports bag. A small tear along the seam let Anna pull the sword free when needed. Tom walked behind her, a small fire arm pressed against the bottom of his ribcage underneath a light jacket.

Anna walked them behind the warehouses, looking for an open door, anything that suggested entry. The first warehouse they came to was open, but completely empty save for a sleeping homeless man in the far corner.

The windows of the second warehouse had once upon a time been painted black. Age had faded its thickness, so now the interior was bathed in a mottled grey glow. Tom had grabbed Anna's arm as they had walked towards the old, rusted door. Pointing at the floor, Anna saw the footprints that led up to the door.

'That doesn't look like it was left by someone you'd expect to find in a rundown warehouse, does it?' Anna asked, more to herself than to Tom. Tom looked from the stiletto footprints to Anna, and shook his head.

The inside of the large building contained stacks and stacks of crates, piled up towards the ceiling. The stacks made the warehouse a maze of rough, wooden lined corridors. Anna and Tom slowly walked around, a drawn sword and gun in hand. To their side, a small metal staircase led upwards to an old office.

'The manager's?' Tom whispered. Anna shrugged but nodded him towards the stairs. As he stepped away, Anna heard a shuffle a small distance away. She caught Tom's eye as he walked up the stairs and, light-footed, made his way across the platform.

Slinking around the crates, she was ready when the shadowed figure raised a gun. Anna ducked and rolled. As she came up a shuriken flew from her hand. Hitting its target, the shuriken dug into the fingers of her assailant, the gun spinning off to the side. Grunting in pain and throwing the shuriken to the side, the man leapt from the shadows towards his gun, but slammed into an invisible wall.

Stumbling backwards, the man looked at Anna, confused and angry. Anna stood calmly, her sword by her side. With a cheeky smile, she pointed upwards.

Directly above the demon was Tom, stood on the balcony. In his hands was a large, round piece of red fabric. Its contours were supported with thick wire that stretched the fabric into a circle when he didn't have it secured away. Traced in deliberate black lines on the red material was a Devil's Trap.

Tom had a big grin on his face.

'I have a few questions for you, if you don't mind.' Anna said conversationally.

'You have no idea who you're messing with.' The demon growled.

'You're joking. I came all the way to America for 'you have no idea who you're messing with'?' Anna huffed, 'if you have any other amazing one-liners, feel free to dazzle me with them, but if not, answering questions will keep me just as amused.'

The demon, within a man about five foot seven, eyes black as obsidian, sneered at Anna.

'I'm looking for a stone, it's about this big,' Anna gestured with her hands, 'any idea?'

'Anna!' Tom shouted from above. The door to the office had burst open, another demon running for Tom. The circle in one hand, he shot wildly at the other demon, bullets glancing of the metal handrails and walls.

'Deus, et Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi, invoco nomen sanctum tuum, et clementiam tuam supplex exposco:' Anna said quickly, Tom had made her memorise the entire exorcism from the Rituale Romanum and tested her on it religiously until he was convinced she could do it backwards. Thank God he had.

Tom had the other demon pinned down behind a crate that was at the end of the walkway he was stood on. There couldn't have been more than twenty feet between him and it. His hand that was holding the Devil's Trap shook ominously. Anna continued the ritual, enunciating each word as Tom had taught her and made her repeat, over and over again.

'Exorcizo te, immundissimo spiritus, omnis incursion adversarii, omne phantasma, omnis legio,' Anna couldn't remember how many shots Tom had fired, but there was no way he could reload one handed in time. If he dropped the Devil's Trap he'd have no problem, but that would leave Anna time only to take the demon's head off. Exorcising a demon often killed the host, but while there was a chance he could be saved, they'd do whatever they could. He looked like he was in his mid-forties, Anna saw the wedding band on his finger, briefly, she wondered if he had children.

'Come on Anna!' Tom called from the balcony. She could see the demon behind the crate was bracing himself for a run.

'Qui cum Patre et eodem spiritu sancto vivit et regnat Deus, per omna saecula saeculorum. Amen!' The man screamed and vomited black smoke into the air. Tears fell from the man's eyes.

Tom spun around and flung the Devil's Trap down the walkway just as the demon leapt from its hiding place. Seeing the danger, the demon skidded into the fabric. Never crossing the carefully etched lines meant he kept his freedom, and the Trap fell from the balcony onto the floor below.

Grinning evilly, the demon looked up from the useless Devil's Trap to Tom. Tom had closed the distance between them and had his gun to the demon's head.

'Get out.' He whispered, and cocked his final bullet. The demon threw its head back and spued its essence into the atmosphere. The host fell to the ground, unconscious, but alive.

Tom made his way down to Anna who had picked up the Devil's Trap. She twisted it into a smaller circle and gave it to Tom. Tom fitted it into a circular cloth case, so the Trap didn't spring open to its full size.

He looked at the man on the floor. 'He didn't make it.' Anna said, covering the sadness with a brisk tone. 'We should check the office to see if they've left anything for us to go on.' She moved towards the stairs, Tom following behind her.

The inside of the office was much like what they were expecting. The cracked window was missing a few panes that had been shattered. The light poured through, highlighting the dust that danced through the air. The furniture that was there was sparse: a sturdy desk, too heavy to be easily moved, an old filing cabinet, empty of any contents and a rickety wooden chair. Anna stood in the doorway with her Katana.

Tom holstered the gun and started to slowly walk around the room, following the left wall. He stopped when he got to the window and spent a few minutes there, looking at the glass and out through the window.

'Anything?' Anna asked.

'Not really,' Tom mumbled, not taking his gaze from the horizon. Her turned to Anna and shrugged his shoulders. There's blood on the glass here, and it's been broken outwards. I'd say that a demon did it not too long ago, but a new demon, one that hasn't sussed out how fragile human flesh is.'

'We're chasing a newbie?' Anna was incredulous.

'No, I'd say we're chasing someone important enough to have help, but not important enough to have good help.' Tom looked out the window again, 'I can't see anything that would be important from here, so I'm gonna guess that they just needed some light, so broke the window.'

'So nothing helpful?'

'Not yet.' He was looking at the desk, it was old, but not old enough to be an antique. The dust had been disturbed in a rectangle by the chair.

'Laptop?' He mumbled to himself. Tom looked around the floor meticulously, making sure he missed nothing. Getting bored, Anna propped the door open, so she could see any movement outside the office, but moved over to the filing cabinet to check that all the draws were empty.

'They don't even come out,' She huffed, yanking at one of them 'so there's going to be nothing stuck to the back of them.'

Tom was lying on his back underneath the desk, checking for anything attached to it that was meant to be kept out of sight. Deciding the search fruitless, he stood back up and looked at Anna over the desk.

'It looks like there was something here,' he indicated where the dust had been disturbed, 'there are four points that look like pads, so I'm thinking a laptop, but that's all I've got.'

Anna stomped over to the desk, leaning herself against it. 'Damn it!' She shouted, banging her hands on the desk in frustration. The heavy desk lurched to one corner with the force of her blow, wobbling one an unsteady leg. Anna and Tom looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

'Eureka.' Tom mumbled.

Without talking, they lifted the table together and moved it to the side. Covered by one of the table legs was a small hole in the floor. Jagged wood at its edges told of a quick, brutal strike breaking the wood.

Tom bent close to the floor, and with a burst of excitement sat back up, carefully putting two fingers through the hole, scrabbling for something within.

With an 'Aha!' Tom pulled his hand away, a small data pen clutched in his hand.

'Looks like we might have not given them enough time to clear out properly.' Anna said with a grin.

'Lets get back to the hotel.' Tom said with a big grin. The smile was wiped away with a look of surprise.

'Demon!' Tom shouted, pointing at the doorway.

Anna spun around, her sword back in hand, 'Where!'

'Just ran past,' he shouted, the pair running through the door, 'it was her, the demon in the grey suit.'

They could hear the clink, clink of heels running down the metal stairway before they could see her. By the time they were at the top of the stairs, the demon had made it out of the warehouse door. Jumping down the stairs two at a time, the door banged as they threw it open. Stopping outside, neither Anna nor Tom could see where the woman had gone. Anna ran up to a fence a few meters away, climbing the few feet to its top. She dropped back down and shook her head at Tom. Tom looked around and shrugged his shoulders at Anna.

Anna mumbled an expletive or two as they walked back into the warehouse.

'That, is really annoying.' She muttered.

'Don't worry, we'll get her.' Tom smiled.

'And her little dog too?' Anna asked, sounding hopeful.

'Eugh,' Tom sounded disgusted, 'That rat of a dog is going first.' Anna laughed, but as she stopped, looked at Tom with a furrowed brow and cocked her head to one side. She looked down one of the corridors framed with the big wooden crates and nodded to it. Silently, her katana came back out of its sheath. Understanding, he took a loaded gun from Anna and slowly walked the corridor she had nodded to.

Blending to the shadows, Anna took a parallel corridor, her sword poised. She got to the end of the corridor with no event, not hearing a noise, there was just a shadow, oh so slightly out of place.

'Uh, Anna?' Tom called out, still in the shadows, Anna saw Tom come into the mottled light from the above windows.

'Sorry.' He mumbled. Behind him was a tall man with shaggy brown hair, he had an arm around Tom's neck, the other held a gun to Tom's head.

'No worries.' She said. Coming into the light in front of them, her Katana at the throat of the out of place shadow, which had turned out to be a second man, shorter than the other, but just as well built.

Tom grunted as the arm around his throat tightened.

Anna's grip on her sword tightened, a globe of blood oozed at the point of her sword.


	10. Witches, Demons and Jacuzzis

'Okay, let's take it easy.' The tall guy said. He relaxed the arm around Tom's throat a little. Anna's sword never moved; the dribble of blood was soaked up by the collar of the man's t-shirt.

Half of Anna's body was hidden from the tall man's sight. With her free hand, she lifted a shuriken from her belt and held it at the man's back. The man grunted as the point was pressed at his back. With one of the points pressed firmly, out of sight, Anna moved the sword away slowly.

Anna nodded her head to the side, gesturing for the tall man to do the same with his gun. Slowly too, he moved the gun to the side. His hand was raised in a peaceful gesture, the gun hung on his index finger. When his hand was out to the side, Anna winked at Tom.

Tom's elbow rammed hard into the man's stomach, just beneath his sternum. The guy was bigger than him, but the blow caught him off guard. In the surprise, Tom slammed his foot down onto the man's instep. He grunted in pain, and the time allowed Tom to grab his gun arm and twist the gun from his hand. Levelling out, Tom stood in a triangle with the others. His arm was held out straight, pointing the gun at his previous captor, who looked more angry than injured.

Anna had the sword back at the shorter man's throat.

'Now, let's take it easy.' Anna smiled, pulling the sword up.

'Hey! Hey!' The unarmed man shouted, 'there's clearly been a mistake.'

'And we'd love to stay,' the shorter guy said, he had managed to manoeuvre one of his hands up to the sword's handle; the other was behind his back. Quickly, he twisted, and held both of Anna's hands between them, sword in one, shuriken in the other. With barely a hair's breadth between them, Anna could feel his breath on her face, a cocky smile on his:

'I think I could be convinced to.'

Tom spun to take aim, but was knocked flying as the taller guy tackled him to the floor. The gun spun from Tom's hand into the darkness of the warehouse.

Anna and the shorter guy circled as she tried to break his grasp. Clearly stronger than her, he started to twist her hands outward, the grip on her weapons lessening. Up close and personal with the stranger, she pulled her knee up quickly into his groin, and then head butted him squarely on the nose.

Tom and the taller man were on the ground. Tom was lying on his back, his assailant on top of him. Regaining their senses, the stranger banged Tom's head against the ground as he tried to regain his feet. Getting to his knees, he slammed his fist forward. Tom managed to move his head in time, the guy punching the stone floor. Acting quickly, Tom shoved his hand upwards, and poked the stronger man in the eye.

Stumbling backwards, Anna's assailant fell over the taller man who was still cradling his eye. Knocking them both over left Tom free to roll to the side and stand by Anna. With her sword raised, she looked at Tom and nodded towards the door. Never turning their back on the two men who were getting to their feet, they ran to the car once they were clear of the warehouse.

It wasn't until they were on a high street under the early afternoon sun that they both relaxed a little.

'They weren't demons.' Tom said conversationally.

'What?' Anna asked.

'The two guys,' Tom clarified, 'think about it. If they were demons who wanted us dead, why get into a stalemate? They wouldn't have cared if one of theirs got killed in doing the job. No, whatever they were doing there, they weren't demons.'

'So what just happened?' Anna was monumentally confused.

'They were in an abandoned warehouse being used by demons and were well armed.' Tom recapped.

'That doesn't help.' Anna said after a minute of thinking. 'They could have been drug smugglers using the warehouse as storage. They could have been muggers who followed us in. Hell, they could have been well armed rat-catchers!'

Tom sighed and rubbed his temples, 'Let's get back to the hotel then, and figure out what to do from here.'

'You okay?' Anna asked, looking at the red mark across Tom's throat.

'I'll be fine, just confused.' Anna smirked. If there was one thing that bothered Tom more than anything, it was not knowing what was going on.

After a few more minutes of driving, they pulled up to their hotel. Anna slapped a $20 in the concierge's hand and told him to make sure he looked after her car.

The inside of the hotel lobby was huge. Through a revolving oak door, they stood and stared at the huge space. They were stood at the top of a set of marble steps, gleaming brass handrails led them down to the main floor. The marble floor was decorated with an ornate, cushioned seating area at one side. Huge brass vases were filled with beautiful orchids that Tom would have assumed to have been fake if he were anywhere else. The high ceiling was domed, the light of a large chandelier danced off its glass and diamond decorations. The reception desk, which was to the left hand side, was manned by three reception staff. Each of them was immaculately groomed and greeted each of their guests with a manicured smile.

Anna and Tom walked up to the desk, looking a little stunned at their surroundings.

A blonde receptionist turned to face them. Her smile faltered just a little as she looked over the two tired, dirty travellers, the bags behind them well used and scruffy.

'Can I help you?' She said through a false smile, 'Are you lost?'

Anna plastered on her own fake smile, facing the ill-mannered receptionist.

'No, but I think the bell boy must be,' Anna drawled with her best posh English accent, 'or do they take that long over here?' she turned to ask Tom. Tom managed an unsurprised shrug of disappointment. No longer were they impressed tourists; as far as the receptionist was concerned, she was about to discover that they were unhappy persons of wealth, influence and little patience.

Anna offered the receptionist a sickeningly sweet smile and placed their passports and reservation details on the desk.

'These are our passports and details.' Anna said slowly, pointing at each set of documents then waving the receptionist away. She turned to Tom and unsubtly rolled her eyes.

The receptionist coughed politely to get Anna's attention. Anna turned back to her and scrunched her nose.

'Dear, you should be seen by a Doctor, hacking cough like that, very unattractive.' Anna muttered. 'Now, if you wouldn't mind, we've been travelling the Congo with the British Ambassador and were hoping to be able to freshen up; sometime today, maybe?'

'Miss Santora, Mr. Williams, you have the Chancellor's Suite, on the sixth floor.' She said politely, through gritted teeth. 'It has a wonderful view of central San Francisco.'

'And do we get dressed in the lobby, or do we need to go and catch ourselves a bell boy?' Anna asked sweetly.

The receptionist grimaced a smile and waved someone over. A young man arrived dressed in the livery of the hotel pushing a polished brass trolley.

'To the Chancellor's Suite.' The receptionist ordered. The bell boy loaded the bags and walked them over to the lift.

The room, as expected, was magnificent. Doors that lead to the double room next door had been opened, allowing Tom and Anna a room each. The Suite came with a separate sitting area as well as a large dining room.

Tom tipped the bell boy and closed the door behind him. At the click of the door, Anna let out a low, impressed whistle. Tom chuckled to himself.

'You told the receptionist that we'd been travelling the Congo.' He laughed.

'Well, she was a snotty cow.' Anna turned to face Tom with her nose in the air, 'I've a good mind to tell the Ambassador how poor the service here is.'

'Try not to enjoy your cover too much.' Tom smiled.

Anna fished her washing bag out from her suitcase and headed for the shower. Tom unpacked only what he needed from his case; the pair had learnt that leaving quickly is much easier if you don't have to pack everything.

He pulled out the contents of the envelope the Masons had given him and spread them out over the dining room table. After a few minutes of frustrated staring, he opened Anna's laptop and plugged in the data pen they had liberated earlier that morning.

There were only a few files on the pen. There was a screen shot taken of a map, an area to the south of San Francisco, the most interesting though, were the emails that had been saved onto one document.

Anna came out of the bathroom in a hotel provided robe, her hair wrapped in a fluffy white towel.

'Tom! There's a Jacuzzi in there!'

'Uh huh. You need to come and look at this.' Anna leaned over Tom's shoulder to get a look. He had pulled up one particular email for her to read:

[Elaine,

I don't care how many there are. The Hunters are on their way to SF and we cannot allow even the remotest chance of them getting to the box. I've sent you the map and addresses, I don't care if you have to kill every Witch in California, you will get that box, and you will have it by the end of the week.]

'It's dated from two days ago.' Tom muttered.

'Do you think it's related to our stone?' Anna asked.

'I don't know, but it's intriguing. I can't imagine there were many other demons using that warehouse, so this data pen must belong to the same demon that has our stone.'

Anna nodded. 'We might have some time until Robert's friend gets here. This might be worth looking into.'

'This address is on the other side of the city, probably in the suburbs.' Tom pulled the map onto the screen, 'we could be there within an hour.'

Anna shook her head. 'That email doesn't say how many witches there are, just there are a lot of them. What's the plan; knock on their doors and jetlag them to death?'

Tom yawned. 'Fair enough. If I'm going to be turned into a frog, I suppose I should be awake for it.' Tom lent forward, resting his head on his arms on the table. Anna looked at her tired friend and smiled, then poked him in the back.

'Tom. We're in a hotel with six gazillion stars. There's a bed in your room that was probably built by blind Tibetan monks, go use it.'

Tom looked up sheepishly from his arms. 'Oh yeah, habit.' He shifted his weight to get up, but never stood. Anna turned to admonish him, but stopped when she saw his head cocked to the side. She'd once told him that he reminded her of a confused dog when he did it.

He'd opened his note book, and flipped to a page that he'd scribbled circles over, each with different numbers by them. An enthusiasm had lit up his eyes, Anna didn't move, didn't want to break the moment. Tom was quiet and reserved, but when presented with a historical puzzle he became a different person.

Anna noted the signs: his eyes were bright and focused, any notion of jetlag erased. His shoulders were relaxed, but every part of his body was full of energy, ready to pounce. His movements were slow but deliberate, like the beginning of a dance that was about to explode with energy.

You could almost see him thinking. His head straightened, looked up to Anna and smiled. He patted the picture of the Aztec symbols he'd been studying on the plane.

'I think I might be on to something.' It was a boyish grin, and he suddenly looked so much younger. Like an excitable school boy a few minutes before the final bell before the summer holidays.

Anna thought of all the places that she could imagine Tom. Working in museums up to his elbows in artefacts and books, at a university being one of those inspirational lecturers, an Ambassador's aid smoothing over slights that nobody else noticed. Imagining him slinking down a dark corridor with a gun in hand ready to battle demon, ghost or any of the other supernatural nasties they'd taken down just didn't fit. She knew he'd never change though, for whatever reason. Anna wasn't sure what the reason for his choice was, but whatever it was, she was grateful. Tom was dedicated to what he was doing, and that was the only thing she'd thanked God for since her father had died.

Anna smirked and raised an eyebrow, 'Good. Although it's taken you ages; getting slow in your old age.'

Tom hadn't lost his grin. He got up and walked towards his bedroom, 'Cow.'

'Tosser.' Anna sang with a smile at his retreating form.

It was cold and she was bored. She had been in Robert's apartment for days and apart from the Dead Sea Scroll, she had found nothing that was interesting or helpful. His computer system had proven too difficult for her skills, and so had been sent to those with a more developed sense of electronic larceny. Robert's body had been removed as well, although her superior had taken delight in telling her that if she wanted the mess cleaned up she'd have to do it herself. When she'd objected, he'd said it had served her right for opting for viciousness over efficiency.

Her orders had been to cover for Robert's 'absence'. So she'd been taking calls, answering basic questions or telling people she'd be getting back to them. Turns out that Robert had quite the network of contacts and a list of talents that you wouldn't find advertised in the local Yellow Pages.

She had preferred being in America, it was warmer there, and it's where everything of importance was happening. She was stuck, in a rundown house, in a rundown neighbourhood pretending to be a dead man.

Outside, dull grey clouds coated the sky, a light drizzle of rain splattered the windows. She hated this more than anything else; the half-hearted drizzle that fell to the ground like it just couldn't be bothered, it fitted the dull grey clouds. She wanted sun, to feel the pleasant warmth on her skin and not the blasting fires of some of the more unsavoury parts of the hell that she had come from. If she couldn't have that, she wanted a thunderstorm. Thick black rolling clouds with sheet lightning that lit up the sky: there was no sky in hell, just a nothingness that was more frightening than the tangible.

Instead, she had this miserable piss that the English kept calling 'weather'.

She hadn't escaped from Hell; she'd been let out by her boss, Emanuel. He said she was exactly what he needed: clever, resourceful, but loyal. That was always the problem, demons were cunning and conniving, but always ambitious, and to move up, someone always had to come down first. He'd said that this mission was important, vital even, and he knew he could trust her. It annoyed her to no end that he was right, and he knew it. She didn't know how he knew, but if she did, that would have made him so much less appealing.

She was sat in a chair she had moved next to the big French Doors at the back of his living room. Robert had kept his garden nice, which she found oddly surprising, she hadn't thought he looked liked a gardening man. His motivation was a little more obvious when she had taken a few minutes to examine the more exotic herbs and plants in his collection.

A strong gust of wind blew the evergreen trees into arcs, touching each other in a strange, green wave. A loud howl of wind accompanied a window slamming open. With a huff of impatience, she dropped her 'Hello' magazine onto the floor and stomped into the kitchen to properly lock the rickety windows in the house.

She smirked as she saw the displaced windowsill underneath the thrown open window. Underneath the wood was a line of salt that would bar entrance through the window. This was a common practice by English Hunters, and they'd taken great pains to make sure that she would be able to use the front door when she'd needed.

The wind had blown the window open and a load of the salt over the kitchen work tops. Davina slammed the window shut and locked it, pushing the sill back into place.

She glared at the salt on the work tops, 'Great, I'm a dead man's secretary and his cleaner.' She grumbled.

There was someone behind her; she could feel their eyes on the back of her neck. It wasn't the normal feeling of being watched; she could feel their gaze moving over her body, examining its curves and shape. It was invasive, domineering, violating: she loved it.

'Emanuel.' She turned. His eyes were black, his face set into a furious scowl. Davina gasped as she fell upwards, pinned to the ceiling.

He looked up at her from the floor. She could feel his power not just holding her fast, but moving inside her. She gasped as her insides were crushed, choking blood up from destroyed lungs. She could give no voice to her confusion or fear.

'Don't do anything that will cause problems, is what I said.' Emanuel said. His vessel was a man, not more than thirty. Brown hair framed a strong jaw line and skimmed his shoulders, his black eyes had faded to a subtle brown. His smile was innocent, enticing. Emanuel had always said that humans responded better to a pretty face than anything demonic cunning could conjure.

'Don't do anything that will cause problems, do you remember?' He started strolling around the kitchen as if nothing was out of the ordinary. 'Of course you do, you're a bright girl.' Davina gasped again, bloody tears trickled from her eyes.

'Or, I thought you were.' His power disappeared and she fell to the floor. She could feel the floor pressing against broken ribs. The power was there again, it spun her around and pinned her to the floor. Emanuel dropped to one knee, a beautiful smile with cruel eyes. He stroked the side of her face.

'All you had to do was to make sure nobody noticed Robert's absence. Answer a few calls with his voice, nothing exciting.' He gripped her chin with strength enough to crush bone and twisted her face so he could look into her bloody eyes.

'Did you think you were being clever, finding the stolen car they asked about?' His smile was still there, and it was terrifying.

He stood up slowly, still holding Davina by her jaw. Her feet dangled a foot of the floor.

'You, my pretty one, sent the Hunters straight to where they shouldn't have been. It's caused a few problems.' The blood in her lungs made a strange gurgling sound as she tried to breath.

'Luckily for you, little damage has been done and they haven't got the stone.' He tensed his hand, listening for the crack of her breaking jaw. With an almost disinterested motion, he threw her across the kitchen, crashing into the door frame, his power pinning her against the wall.

He strolled up to her prone form; he leant in close, whispering in her ear. 'So, stay here, cover for Robert's absence, and don't do anything that will cause problems.' He pressed his mouth to hers, violently passionate. He pulled back, chuckling to himself, her blood gleaming on his lips, 'Although, I'd quite like to come back, probably best you don't give me a reason.'

And he was gone as quickly as he'd come.

Davina fell to the floor. Already she could feel her bones moving back into their natural places. She hadn't realised answering the Hunters' question about a stolen car would have caused any problems. Emanuel had never had cause to be angry with her before, it had been terrifying. He had been cold, intrusive and violent.

And she'd loved it.


	11. Better Luck Next Time

Chapter 11:

Anna stared at the scene before her in shock. There hadn't even been time to change from her baggy t-shirt and shorts that she slept in. She'd told herself it couldn't be real, she'd rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she'd pinched herself, everything that was, is and should be told her that what she was seeing was wrong.

But clear as the early morning sun pouring through the window, Tom was sat at the dining room table, working on his translation with an empty breakfast plate beside him. All before she'd even woken up.

Anna picked up the silver letter opener from the small desk and pressed it to Tom's skin.

Tom raised his eyebrows at her. 'Uh, good morning Anna.'

'Don't good morning me; who are you?' She stomped over to her suitcase.

'Did you hit your head when you were sleeping?' Tom asked.

She'd returned with a small vial she'd opened, and flicked holy water over him. 'The Power of Christ compels you!'

Tom threw his head back and laughed, 'I'm not possessed.'

'Oh yeah, Mr. I'm awake in the morning, person? Okay, tell me, what happened to, uh,' Anna paused for a second, 'Yeah, what happened to my favourite rifle?'

'You mean that monster of machinery? Robert took it off you because you shot his next-door neighbour's cat.' He replied.

'It was an accident!' Anna cried, 'And you could have learnt that from anybody. Where's my favourite holiday place?'

Tom sighed and dropped the pen he was holding onto the table, 'Anywhere along the Apienne Mountains in Tuscany.'

'Oh, you're good. Okay then, I've got one for you.' Anna leant over the table with a triumphant grin. 'How old were you when you lost your virginity?'

'Anna!'

'A ha! Gotcha!' She laughed, flicking more of the water over him.

'Sweet Jesus, you insane woman!' He laughed, ducking under the table from the spraying holy water.

Anna went silent when there was a knock at the door.

'We aren't expecting anybody.' She looked at Tom, who had poked his head above the table to check if he was safe from being soaked.

Anna slinked over to the door way and pressed her back to the wall at the side of the door. Anna had refused to use the spy-holes in doors since she'd seen a guy get stabbed through the door whilst using one in a cheap horror film.

'Anna?' Tom called out, 'It's your breakfast.'

She didn't move from her position on the wall, and opened the door from the side. The bell boy on the other side looked a mite confused.

Anna took the breakfast trolley from him and nodded her thanks, closing the door after he left. With breakfast in hand, she sat herself down opposite Tom at the table.

'Bacon, black pudding, beans, fried eggs and sausages. Just the way you like them.' Tom muttered.

Anna nodded her approval, 'All is forgiven.'

'What? I hadn't done anything!' Tom's mouth hung open in disbelief.

'Hadn't you Tom, hadn't you?' Tom's pause of despair was interrupted by his phone ringing. There was a brief struggle between the two as Anna also tried to pick it up from the table. Eventually, Tom stabbed Anna's hand with his pen, thus winning the early morning Battle of the Dining Table.

Anna ploughed her way through her breakfast whilst listening to the one word answers Tom was giving into his phone. The conversation didn't last more than a minute before Tom dropped his phone back on the table.

'The stone didn't get to its intended location.' Tom said, 'Apparently, there was a problem with some rogue hunters in a warehouse yesterday that made them change their plans.' Anna groaned through a mouth full of beans.

'He's still tracking it. For some reason they're not moving the stone out of San Francisco.'

Anna raised an eyebrow, 'Isn't that a bit weird? If they don't want us to find it, they could send it anywhere.'

'True, but I don't think they can.' Tom stacked some of the papers he'd been writing on in a pile. 'They flew the stone all the way out here; I'm thinking that whatever they need to free the demon in the stone and break the seal is here.' Anna nodded and stuffed half a fried egg into her mouth. She waved her fork at him, signalling she had thought of something, but her mouth was so full she was having trouble moving her jaw.

After a few seconds, Anna made a mammoth effort to swallow. 'This is good food.' She said, deadly serious. Tom shook his head and looked back down at the translation.

'Do you think the box that's mentioned in the email is something they need for the ritual?' Anna asked.

Tom paused for a second, then looked up at Anna. 'Not sure, but definitely a possibility. It could also be something that would help us stop the ritual, hence why then don't want us to have it.'

'Sounds like something we might want then. I'll get dressed, and then we can go make ourselves some new friends.' Anna bounced away from the table towards her room.

She emerged a few minutes later fully dressed, weapon bag in hand. 'Ready?'

'I am indeed.' Tom had cleared away his paper and was armed and ready to go. 'I wonder what kind of witches they'll be.' He mumbled to himself.

'Kind of witches? They cast spells and stuff: witches. Done.' Anna stated. Tom rolled his eyes.

'England has a predominance of folk magic; it comes from our Celtic background.' Anna fell into step with Tom ready for her magic 101 lesson she knew was coming.

'Here though, so many different cultures have brought their practices with them, we could get to see anything. Hoodoo is quite common apparently, so's demon magic.'

'Whoa, demon magic?' Demon magic, Anna had already decided, was going to be bad.

'People who make deals with demons for magical abilities.' Tom said, 'It happens in England, but because these people get so powerful so quickly they're noticed by the folk witches who tend to, uh, deal with them.'

'Don't the demon witches have more mojo?' Anna asked.

'Generally, depends on the demon they made the deal with. But what folk witches lack in power they make up for in generations worth of experience and numbers. Any demon witch at home has a short life span.'

Anna looked concerned, 'So we don't know what we're walking into?'

'Nope,' Tome chirped, 'Exciting, isn't it.'

'Something like that.' She mumbled.

The pair got to their car and began the drive to the suburbs. The autumn weather was windy, with a light drizzle dropping from the grey clouds. They had started their drive just after rush hour, so the streets were fairly quiet, mainly taxis filling the roads. Some of the people on the streets had hoods or umbrellas to shield themselves from the light spittle of rain. Others were too busy talking on their phones or being late for work to notice or care.

The tall buildings of the city centre gradually started to fall behind them as they made their way out of the central city. The radio was quietly playing REO Speedwagon as they went.

'There's something very English about this weather.' Anna commented. She'd been very quite since they'd left the hotel and she'd been confronted with the overcast sky.

'You okay trouble?' Tom asked.

'Driving into a gaggle of unknown witches looking for we don't know what? Peechy.' Anna deadpanned. 'An' there's something about this weather that's really pissing me off.'

Tom paused for a second. 'You're homesick.' He said.

'No I'm not.'

'Okay then.' Tom smiled.

'I'm not! Well, maybe a little.' She mumbled.

'We'll call Robert when we get back, give him an update.'

'Good plan.' Anna said, 'Just to be clear, I don't miss Robert.' Tom laughed.

The drive took them a little longer than they thought it would, and they arrived at the area on the map in just over an hour.

'So, now we're here, what do we do?' Anna asked, 'Don't suppose there's a Witches 'R' Us sign about is there?'

Tom pointed at a small shop sandwiched in-between a convenience and video store.

'Huh.' The sign on the door read: The Golden Cauldron. 'Really?'

'Good place to start.' He said as they got out of the car.

The door tinkled an old fashioned bell as they opened the door. The shop was filled with the smell of incense. Books shelves lined one wall, filled with titles like: 'To Ride a Silver Broomstick' and 'How to clean your cauldron'.

The rest of the store was filled with crystals and gem stones, aromatherapy oils and dried herbs, a small section of the store was set aside for clothes, mostly tie-dyed dresses from what Anna could tell. Above Tom's head was a toy witch on a broomstick spinning in circles, attached to a small motor on the ceiling.

A young woman, early to mid-twenties, with frizzy yellow hair appeared from between the racks of clothes.

'Welcome! My name is Yulanda and welcome to the Golden Cauldron.' The women's voice was airy and cheerful, 'Is there anything I can help you with?'

Anna had done a quick scan of the shop; there was another woman stood by the book shelves talking to two men, but the smoke from the incense made the details of the women difficult to see.

'I hope so,' Tom started, 'I'm Dave Murray, this is my colleague Janet Gers.'

Anna stepped forward and shook the woman's hand, 'Nice to meet you.'

'We're here from Tarmas Publications, they're interested in starting a new magazine about magic in suburban San Francisco.' Tom explained.

The women's face lit up with excitement, 'How wonderful! It will be great to spread the word to our fellow sisters,' Yulanda giggled slightly then rubbed Tom's arm, 'and our brothers of course. It's wonderful to see more men embracing the wonders of the Goddess.'

Anna raised an eyebrow, 'Uh huh, tell me, we're writing an article on 'magic artefacts through the ages, can you think of anything that will grab readers' attention, something thrilling, out of the ordinary.' Anna paused, waiting for a response.

Yulanda was still looking at Tom; she focused her gaze on the space around his head. 'You're aura is so interesting, so bright, but cloudy.' She giggled again, 'like candy floss.'

Tom looked at Anna a little lost.

'Tell me,' Yulanda went on, 'how often do you cleanse?' She asked, waving her hands in the space around him.

'All the time,' Anna said, 'he's a real cleanser, can't stop cleansing, can barely get him out of the bathroom for cleansing.'

'She meant cleansing auras. 'Tom started.

'I know what she meant, but we're looking for something that will appeal, aren't we, Dave.' Anna heaped emphasis on the last word.

'Yes, yes we are. Would you be able to help us out with that? Any unusual artefacts, that sort of thing.' Tom asked the woman again.

'Hmm, something that would grab a reader's attention,' she tapped her index finger against her lips as she thought. Her eyes lit up with an idea.

'Oh I know, and it was you who made me think about it!' Yulanda gave Tom's arm another rub, 'Instead of artefacts, why don't you write about something productive. All these new fangled machines and cars, dirtying the Goddess, you could have different ideas from different "witches",' Yulanda did exaggerated quotation marks in the air as she said 'witches', 'about how to cleanse their personal spaces and aura.' Yulanda looked at Anna properly for the first time, 'I'm sure you'd find them really helpful.'

Anna's brow furrowed; she was fairly sure that that had been meant as an insult, and she'd never responded well to being insulted. She was about to make a witty response, or slap her, when a sharp voice called out from the other side of the store.

'Yulanda, would you put some music on please? I can speak to our customers.' Yulanda smiled at the two and gestured for them to walk towards the other woman before she turned and disappeared into the back of the store.

Anna and Tom walked through a cloud of incense smoke to the other side of the shop. The other woman was older than Yulanda, a few grey wisps of grey streaked her hair. Good skin and sharp eyes made any guesses to her actual age very difficult.

'I'm Samantha.' The woman shook their hands. The two men she had been talking to had moved off, looking around the shop's shelves. 'I heard you saying that you were reporters?'

Anna nodded, 'That's right. We're looking for stories on magical artefacts that might grab the public's interest.'

'Someone mentioned to us that there's an artefact of some interest in the local area,' Tom said, 'a box?'

There was a pause before Samantha's eyebrows rose. 'Can you be a little more specific?'

'I'm afraid not.' Anna said, 'Can you think of anything at all: something in a local person's collection, maybe?'

Samantha closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. She turned and moved to a corner of the shop under a speaker that was now playing Native American music into the shop.

'Who are you?' She asked with a levelled gaze. 'And let's not bother pretending you're reporters.'

'Uh, aids to the British Ambassador?' Anna tried. Samantha smiled a little and shook her head.

'Buddha reincarnate?' Tom said. Samantha laughed.

'You're certainly more entertaining than the other pair I've been speaking to today. They said they were gas inspectors. Hunters have certainly got much less exciting over the years. 'Samantha looked over their shoulders and called out to one of the two men. 'Excuse me? Please be careful with that, it's quite fragile.'

Anna was about to say something to Samantha when Tom started tapping her arm.

'Anna?'

'What is it?' Tom was still tapping her arm, looking at the man who had picked up a large crystal geode. Anna looked at the man. He was tall, with shaggy brown hair. He and his companion were wearing the jumpsuits of workman. His companion, who stood a fair few inches shorter pointed in their direction. The two pairs stared at each other for a few seconds.

'Isn't that?' Anna muttered.

'The guys from the warehouse?' Tom said, 'Yep, told you they weren't demons.'

'Does now seem like a good time for 'I told you so'?' Anna muttered angrily. The two men in the corner were having a whispered conversation, looking up at them every so often.

'Is there a problem?' Samantha asked.

'Not at all.' Tom answered, 'Perhaps we should go and say hello?' He looked at Anna. Anna looked as if she was about to disagree when the two approached them both.

'How about we start with 'hello' this time?' The shorter of the two said, holding out his hand to Anna. Anna didn't move for a couple of seconds before she decided to shake his hand.

'We're sorry about before,' the taller man said, 'a woman ran out of the warehouse screaming about monsters, we assumed that you guys-' the sentence trailed off as he realised Samantha was still stood next to them. She waved her hand dismissively at him.

'I've been dealing with demons since before you were in grade school.' She said. The taller man looked surprised.

'So you know we're not...' he left the sentence hanging.

'Gas inspectors?' Samantha barked a laugh.

The shorter of the two nudged the other with his elbow. 'Told you we should have been FBI.'

'What is it you folks are really here for?' Samantha asked.

Neither of the pairs spoke, waiting to see who would volunteer information first.

'We're here looking for a box. It was mentioned by one of the demons we've been chasing.' Tom started.

'Whatever it does, they're on a mission to get at it.' Anna added. Samantha nodded and looked at the other two.

'We picked up on all the demons headed for the area and thought we'd see what was going on.' The taller of the two said.

'Well then,' Samantha said, 'looks like you're both here for the same reasons. Demons have been arriving for the past couple of days looking for the box. How's about we get some proper introductions going.'

The taller of the two held his hand out to Tom. 'I'm Sam, this is my brother Dean.'

Dean nodded his head, 'Howdy.'

Tom shook his hand and gestured to Anna. 'This is Anna, I'm Tom.'

'So you've come to join in the party?' Dean asked.

'Something like that,' Anna said, 'these guys made it personal.' Anna thought of the dead Hunters in England, hearts ripped from their chests.

'So, what's the deal with this box that makes it this year's demon accessory of choice?' Dean asked Samantha.

'The box is irrelevant,' Samantha waved a dismissive hand again, 'although it seems that most of the demons don't know what's in it.'

'How do you know?' Anna asked.

Samantha smirked, 'I'm not the world's most powerful witch, but when demons come to my town, my home, I'm ready for them.

Inside the box is an enchanted powder; the process of how it's made was lost centuries ago. The legend goes that a witch devoured a spirit of an ancient forest. The spell the witch used set the forest ablaze, the spirit inside the witch seized control of her limbs, and so she burned to death. The powder is what remains of the witch's ashes.' Samantha paused for a second, looking at the reactions from her audience.

'Whether that's true or not, the powder can be used as part of any spell or ritual, adding to its power.' Samantha finished.

'The demons need to complete a ritual to free the demon from the stone.' Tom mumbled to Anna.

'Demon in a stone?' Dean raised an enquiring eyebrow.

'Long story, suffice to say: big nasty locked in a stone. Big nasty gets out, they get a heavyweight and we lose a seal.' Anna said.

Sam and Dean exchanged a worried look, 'This is a seal?' Sam asked. Tom nodded at the taller man.

'Well then,' Dean said, 'we best make sure the bad guys don't get any of this magic powder.' Dean paused for a second, and then looked at Samantha. 'It's pixie dust, isn't it.' Samantha laughed and shook her head.

'And if you put it in you cauldron it beefs up your voodoo?' Dean asked.

'Hoodoo.' Sam corrected.

'Who did?' Anna looked confused.

'Hoo - doo.' Tom emphasised the syllables. Anna still looked baffled; she looked at Dean who just shrugged his shoulders at her.

'Voodoo is a religion mainly practiced in Africa.' Sam said.

'Hoodoo is a magical practice made up of lots of different styles practiced in America.' Tom added, nodding his agreement with Sam.

'Oh God,' Anna looked at Dean, 'there are two of them.'

'Yes, the powder increases a person's 'spell power' for lack of a better term.' Samantha said, 'We've been taking it in turns to guard it, I can take you to where it's being kept, but you'll have to wait until tonight before we can let you take it.'

'What happens tonight?' Tom asked.

'A moot. The witches of the community will gather and decide whether to release the box to you. Personally, I think it'll be safer on the move with four hunters than it is currently.'

'Not that we don't appreciate the trust and all, but how do you know we ain't demons?' Dean asked Samantha.

Samantha smiled at him, 'If you were demons, you wouldn't have been able to get into my shop. We've also been expecting you.'

'Oh?' Anna asked.

'We'd be a piss poor pot of witches if we didn't have a psychic or two.' Samantha smiled. 'Yulanda?'

The frizzy blonde head appeared from behind the stack of tie died dresses. 'Yes?'

'I'm popping out for twenty minutes or so,' Samantha said as she threw a shawl over her shoulders. Yulanda bobbed her head in understanding and returned to what she was doing.

Samantha walked the foursome across the road and into a cul-de-sac. The houses all seemed typical of the suburban theme. Each had a white picketed fence, well tended garden, clean cars sat on drive ways in front of garage doors. The two pairs travelled in an awkward silence as they trailed behind Samantha.

Walking up to a door that belonged to a house no different than any of the others on the street, Samantha knocked at the door.

'I would have thought a witch's house would be, you know, different.' Anna muttered, almost disappointed.

'Like how?' Sam asked.

'Dunno,' Anna shrugged, 'made out of ginger bread?'

'Doesn't look likes there's anybody home.' Tom said.

Samantha shook her head, 'It's Mary's turn to guard the box, she should be here.' Samantha pulled a set of keys out of her pocket, mumbling to herself as she went through them. Finally picking one, she unlocked it and slowly pushed it open.

'Samanatha,' Sam called, 'maybe we should go first.' Sam and Dean already had guns in hand; Anna had her hand on the handle of her katana and looked expectantly at Tom.

'Oh! Right.' He said, pulling his gun from its holster.

With the door opened, the five entered in single file. Instantly they were hit with a foul smell of human waste.

Dean pressed the sleeve of his jacket to his face, 'Wow, that's really, really bad.' Dean mumbled into the leather.

They walked slowly into the living room, the smell getting worse.

'It's like being back in the sewers.' Anna mumbled to Tom.

Samantha screamed.

On the wall to their left as they had walked in was Mary. A fire poker had been twisted through each hand, crucifying her half way up the wall. Excrement ran down her legs, dripping of her slippered feet.

'Son of a bitch.' Dean whispered.


	12. Hell Hath No Fury

Chapter 12: Hell Hath No Fury

Anna and Sam had taken Mary down off the wall and laid her down in the hallway. Tom was sitting with Samantha on the sofa, her head was in her hands as she sobbed. Dean had thrown open the windows on the ground floor to try and remove the smell of excrement and death.

Samantha took a big breath in to calm herself, and then looked up at Tom with a grateful smile.

'I'm sorry; I need to pull myself together.' She mumbled.

'Take your time,' Tom gently rubbed Samantha's back in reassurance.

'No,' She stood up and paused for a moment to steady herself, 'we need to check if they got what they came for.' Rubbing tears from her eyes she walked into the hallway. Not looking at the corpse that lay on the floor, she walked down the hall to a simple white, wooden door underneath the stairs.

'Mary kept the box hidden in her cellar.' Her eyes found Mary's body on the floor. She looked oddly peaceful now, her face looked like it should be smiling, her curly dark grey hair limp against her head.

Mary took another deep breath in and opened the door to the cellar. The stairs were old, rickety wooden things that made loud creaking noises as Samantha went down them, followed by Tom, Sam and Anna. At the bottom of the stairs was a Devil's Trap. The circle was perfectly formed, and the sigils within done with skill and the artistry of a calligrapher.

'This is good work.' Sam commented as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

'Mary is an expert at runes and sigils,' Samamtha sighed, 'sorry: was, an expert on runes and sigils.' She was at the other end of the cellar, picking an empty wooden box off the floor. 'And she was a sly one too.'

Sam crouched down by the sigil, staring carefully at its lines, 'This Trap hasn't been broken.' He flicked his gaze up to Tom, 'A demon couldn't have gotten through this.'

'It would have been a mistake for a demon to come down here.' Tom muttered. He had wandered over to one of the plastered walls, running his hands over the surface. 'The walls are absolutely covered in sigils.' Tom turned to Samantha and Anna.

'That Devil's Trap is nothing compared to the work on the walls. A demon wouldn't even be able to get in here, let alone leave. Or survive.' He said. 'It would take me days, weeks to study all of these, but see this here?' Tom pointed to a set of small lines on the wall, finely carved into the plaster.

'This is a passage from the Bible against spirits.' Tom paused, and then looked at Samantha with awe. 'It's not just demons; this room could ward off virtually anything not human.'

'So our friend's got help.' Anna mumbled. She turned to Samantha who was holding the empty box open, chuckling to herself.

'Samantha, are you okay?' Sam asked.

Samantha turned the box around to show Anna the note that was stuck inside the lid. 'It's Mary's hand writing.' Samantha explained.

'What's it say?' Tom asked.

Anna smiled at the note, 'It says, "better luck next time, bitches. Love, Mary".'

'I didn't think she would have hidden it here. Too obvious.' Samantha mumbled. Drumming her fingers on her lips, she started to make her way back up the creaking stairs.

'What's this?' Sam asked, pointing at a tracing on the wall. The lines of the symbol were glowing faintly. Every few seconds one would seem to reflect light that wasn't there.

'Tom?' Anna asked.

'I think it's Germanic,' He whispered, almost just to himself, 'other than that I can't be sure.'

'Why's it glowing?' Samantha asked from the staircase.

'It looks like it can't make up its mind.' Sam said, 'like it's only partially active.'

'I think I've got some stuff on Germanic symbols on my laptop,' Tom said, 'I can check it out later.'

'Samantha?' Anna called. Samantha had finished making her way up the stairs and was out through the landing door.

Tom, Sam and Anna found Samantha in the kitchen with Dean. Samantha had a cupboard above the worktop open, pulling out jars of herbs and spices. With a triumphant exclamation, she pulled a dark jar from the shelf.

Dean peered at the label in her hand, 'Cloves?'

Samantha twisted the top of the jar and pulled out a clear plastic zip bag, filled with grey ash and powder.

'Oh you sly witch, Mary,' Samantha smiled. 'She always used to say, the best place for hiding something is somewhere they won't bother looking.'

'This is good right?' Anna asked, 'We've still got the pixie dust.'

Samantha did her best to smile. 'Yes, this is a good thing. Here, take this.' She put the bag back inside the dark jar and handed it to Dean.

'I'll call the others and get them to meet at the store. The sooner we make a decision, the sooner you can get that stuff away from here.' Samantha sighed.

'Do you want us to come with you?' Anna asked. Samantha shook her head with a sad smile.

'No, you stay here. If they come looking for the box again, they're not going to look somewhere they've already been.' Samantha replied. 'It might take a couple of hours to get everyone together, but I'll try to be as quick as I can.'

Samantha walked out of the kitchen, stopping in its doorway, she called over her shoulder: 'Thank you.' She looked like she was about to say more, but started walking again.

The four people stood in the kitchen in an awkward silence.

'So uh, you guys play poker?' Dean asked.

The four moved into the living room to start playing. It wasn't long before Tom quit the game, pleading it was common sense against superior players. He left the room, closing the door behind him. With more than a little difficulty, he carried Mary's dead weight up the flight of stairs and laid her out on her bed. He noted that the wounds on her hands hadn't bled, and so thanked whatever powers there were that she had been dead before she had been pinned to the wall.

Back downstairs, Tom listened intently to the game being played in the other room whilst he boiled the kettle for tea. It sounded like Anna had lost her third game in a row to the two boys. Tom made himself a cup of tea, keeping his hands busy. He couldn't help but feel a sense of melancholia for the dead witch upstairs, and poker just didn't seem appropriate. Lost in his thoughts as he was, the sudden loud noise from a cookery book falling from its shelf made him jump and spill hot tea down his front.

'Tom?' Anna's voice called.

'All good.' He shouted back. He walked to the other side of the kitchen and picked up the book to put it back. Tom didn't recognise the women pictured on the front of the book, probably some celebrity chef, he decided. Picking it up by the cover, he paused when he saw its contents.

A book of recipes certainly, but these were magical by nature. Each page was filled with detailed notes of Mary's studies. There were pages and pages on symbols and sigils, how effective they were and how best to use them. Notes too, on rituals from many different cultures that she had had use for, coupled with their results.

Tom heard the chatter from the next room.

'Call it.' Anna said.

'Full house, kings over eights. No hard feelings?' Dean said. Tom heard the scrape of money being dragged across the table.

'Ah damn it.' Anna whined, 'I've just got two pair.'

'Don't worry about it, Dean's been playing poker since he was seven,' Sam said in a reassuring manner, 'what pairs did you have?'

'Well, I got two aces,' Tom heard cards being flapped against the table.

'Well, that's not bad.' He heard Sam say, almost patronisingly.

'And I've also got another two aces.' He heard the cards against the table. Tom could feel Anna's wolfish grin from the kitchen. 'Oh, I guess that's four of a kind. No hard feelings?'

Tom heard Sam laugh, 'Dude, you got played!'

'This is a game, isn't it?' Anna replied. Tom heard the coins being dragged to the other side of the table.

'Oh, I like you.' Dean rumbled. 'Deal, let's see what you got.'

The door to the kitchen opened as Sam walked in.

'I think I'm in over my head.' He said to Tom. 'What's that?'

'This,' Tom paused, showing Sam the cover of the book, then its contents, 'is one of Mary's cookery books.'

'This could be useful.' Sam muttered, flicking through a couple of pages. 'Do you think Samantha would let us take it?'

'I don't think so. They sound like a tight community, I can't imagine them letting something like this go.' Tom replied. 'Did you hear that?' Tom and Sam looked up at each other in silence listening. The only sounds being the occasional flick of cards in the other room.

'I don't hear anything?' Sam muttered, as soon as he did, there was a quiet knocking on the door.

Tom and Sam left the kitchen and met Anna and Dean in the hallway.

'That was fast.' Anna said.

Sam opened the door to be faced with the slightly dazed smile of Yulanda.

'Oh, hey.' Sam smiled, 'Yulanda, right? We were in your shop earlier.'

'Yes, I remember, the "gas inspectors".' Yulanda did her over-exaggerated quotation marks and then gave him an over the top wink.

'The others are in a moot at the store, so I thought I would come over to pay my respects to Mary.' Yulanda bowed her head, 'I also brought some incense to cleanse the house.' Anna rolled her eyes and walked back into the living room.

Yulanda almost skipped into the house passing a confused Sam who shared a surprised look with Dean. Tom just mumbled 'Don't ask' under his breath as he made his way back to the kitchen.

Soon, fragrant smoke wafted around the corridors and rooms of the house as Yulanda half skipped, half walked around the house. Anna and Dean had restarted their game, sitting opposite each other with stoic expressions whilst Sam and Tom were in the kitchen.

After circling the sitting room and corridors, Yulanda made her way into the kitchen. Tom had closed the book when he had spotted the blonde haired witch enter the kitchen and started a conversation with Sam about what the weather was like in England, doing his best not to notice Yulanda.

After a few moments, Yulanda left the kitchen and they heard her footfalls on the stairs.

'She seems nice and all,' Tom said, 'but can you imagine what she'd be like if she saw what was in this book?' Sam grimaced and nodded in agreement.

Moving back towards Mary's book, the cover flew open and the pages rustled as if being blown by a strong wind. The pages finally came to rest on a page near the back of the book. A symbol dominated the left-hand page, whilst the right was filled with Mary's small, neat handwriting.

'Slightly creepy.' Tom muttered.

'This is the symbol that was glowing downstairs.' Sam said.

Tom yawned, 'I knew it was Germanic.' Tom pointed to a small description of the symbol at the top of the page which detailed its origins.

'What's it do?' Sam asked, rubbing his eyes with a weary hand.

'Uh,' Tom squinted at the text, 'my eyes won't focus. I've just gotten really sleepy.' Tom slid the book across to Sam who slumped down in a chair.

'Same here.' Sam made a half-hearted attempt to read the text before giving up. 'This is wrong, why are we so tired?'

Tom was leaning against the counter and yawned again. He trudged over to the doorway of the living room.

'Uh oh.' He mumbled and turned to Sam. Sam pulled himself to his feet and stuck his head around the doorframe. In the living room, Anna's head was slumped forwards, her chest rising and falling peacefully. Dean had his head resting on his hands, lying forwards on the table.

'Bad sign. That's a really bad sign.' Sam muttered sleepily.

Sam moved into the living room and sat down next to his brother.

'Dean? Dean!' Sam shouted at him, shaking his shoulders as he called him. Tom returned to the book laid out on the counter. He leaned over it and did his best to concentrate on the tight script on the page.

'Come on Tom.' He mumbled to himself. He ran a finger under the line of text to help him focus on it. He gave up with a frustrated moan and pushed himself towards the sink. Splashing his face with water didn't help with the encroaching fatigue. He pulled the towel from the spice rack and wiped his face. He threw the towel back towards where he had picked it up from, knocking over a pepper pot which smashed on the floor. Tom paused for a moment, his head cocked on its side.

Tom grabbed a bag of salt from the cupboard that Samantha had been looking through earlier. He knelt on the floor with the book next to him, fatigue pulling him dangerously close to sleep. As carefully as he could, he drew out the symbol on the floor of the kitchen with the salt. Even in his sleepy stupor he recognised the lines missing from the symbol down stairs, the symbol that was only partially complete. With a sigh, he finished the last of the lines and threw the rest of the salt aside, making more of a mess over Mary's once pristine kitchen.

With what energy he had left, he crawled over to the doorway of the living room once more. Sam's hands were still on his brother's shoulders, but both were now fast asleep.

Stood behind the table, watching Tom with an evil glint in her calculating eyes, was Yulanda. Her hair was still a frizzy blonde mess, but her posture was confident, her gaze steeled, her smile cunning. She idly spun a hex bag around her finger. Finally catching it in her hand, she stalked over to where Tom had leant against the doorframe.

'All this talk of moots, cleansing and shit, it gets really boring.' Yulanda sighed. 'You know what got me, Tom? What got me to go "dark side"?' she did her air-quote fingers again with a sardonic smile, 'It wasn't the offers of power or wealth, although they definitely helped. No, it was the thought that the next time some asshole talked to me like I was stupid, I could make him choke on his tongue.'

Yulanda stroked Tom's hair as she watched his eyes flutter as he tried to stay awake.

'You know, I didn't even have to sell my soul? All I had to do was get this.' She held up the dark jar that contained the powder they were here to protect.

'Mary was a clever old biddy though, she never really did trust me, she didn't leave me much choice.' Yulanda sighed again, 'Did you like my little crucifixion? It had to be dramatic enough to get Samantha to call a moot, get her and all the other tree-huggers out the way, but I hadn't planned on your little entourage.'

Out of the corner of his eye, Tom saw the salt made symbol take on a subtle glow. He did his best to focus on Yulanda and to sit upright against the doorframe.

'Do me a favour?' He mumbled.

Yulanda laughed, 'What would that be?'

'Don't get your blood on me.' Yulanda stopped smiling and looked confused, Tom looked behind Yulanda and into the sitting room.

'Get her, Mary.'

Yulanda leapt to her feet and spun around, and there, stood on the other side of the room was a transparent Mary. She was barely 5 foot 3, her gray hair was in perfect circles around a plump face decorated with a content smile. Her flowery dress was half covered by an apron over the top of which she had her hands clasped, the holes from the fire pokers perfectly visible.

'Hello dear.' The spare chair at the poker table flew across the room and struck Yulanda on her side. It knocked her away from Tom, but not to the floor.

'No! I killed you!' Yulanda screamed at the ghost.

'No shit.' Yulanda narrowly avoided being pinned to the wall as the sofa sped towards her.

'You can't stop me! You can't!' Yulanda ducked as a vase flew past her head. Fixing the still smiling Mary with a gaze, she began muttering under her breath. Mary's smile faltered a little as her ghostly form flickered.

'My my, we have become well versed haven't we.' Mary's voice was distorted and static. No more furniture flew around the room, instead, Mary was gazing around the room as if looking for something. Finally, she raised a fading hand towards the sofa that was now pushed against the wall. A small black bag flew from its cushions towards Mary. As it reached her, its contents spilled out, scattering across the room.

Yulanda's voice was gaining in volume, and Mary's form was little more than an insubstantial wisp, barely noticeable in the light from the sun outside.

Mary's cookery book flew into vision as Tom smacked Yulanda's face with it as hard as his sleep addled limbs would let him. Now free from Yulanda's destroyed hex bag, the other three hunters began to stir.

Yulanda had stumbled back a few paces, her banishing hopelessly interrupted.

'Let's see how you like it, bitch.' Mary mumbled. One of the fire pokers that had been left on the floor darted across the room, narrowly missing Sam's rising head. There was a sickening crunch as it slammed through Yulanda's ribs, her heart, and into the wall behind her.

Yulanda stared at the poker sticking out of her chest, uselessly pawing at it as her heart stopped. When her last breathe had gone and her feet slumped, the fire poker held her to the wall.

Dean was the first to pull himself up and shake himself awake.

'What's going on, what did I miss?' He mumbled as he opened his eyes and saw Yulanda, 'Holy Crap!'

Tom slumped to the floor, still shaking off the last of the unnatural sleep. 'Bad witch.' He said, pointing at the dead Yulanda, then raised a hand at Mary in greeting.

'Awesome ghost.' He said. Mary smiled and nodded at him.

The dark jar containing the magic powder floated onto the table the three hunters were sitting at.

'Please, take care of this.' She whispered.

Sam took the jar and smiled at Mary, 'We will, we promise.'

'Uh, sure.' Dean mumbled in agreement.

'Thanks Mary.' Tom said, 'We owe you.'

Mary looked as if she were about to respond when she snapped her attention to the kitchen doorway.

'Well if this isn't just Brady Bunch revolting.' The woman said, in an English accent.

'Get out, Demon!' Mary had lost any pretence of calm as she screamed at the women. 'You have no power in my home! Leave!'

'You!' Anna shouted at the demon in shock. In the kitchen doorway was the demon from the airport and warehouse. Stood there in her smart gray suit and heels, she looked every part the business woman.

'Yes, me.' She smiled calmly, 'and we'll chat, but first, I hope you don't mind Mary, but I need to talk to these folks privately.' The woman gave Mary a quick wave, and with a thought, brushed the salt made symbol away. An enraged Mary disappeared from view, hurling some impressive abuse as she vanished.

'How rude.' The demon mumbled. The curly haired demon looked at the three who were now stood around the table, to Tom who had managed to pull himself up.

'My name is Elaine, it's nice to finally meet you face to face.' Dean levelled a gun at Elaine's head.

'Oh Dean, really?' She tutted. Dean was thrown sideways against the wall, pinned into place. His gun had flown from his hand towards the smartly dressed demon.

'Dean!' Sam shouted to his brother.

'I've completely lost my train of thought.' Elaine shook her head with a slight frown.

'I'm good Sammy.' Dean managed to rasp through the power that was pinning him to the wall.

Elaine looked over at the body of Yulanda and sighed.

'You know, I didn't think she would last, she just didn't seem stable.' Elaine said.

'You were the demon she made a deal with.' Tom said.

'Surprised? No. I didn't think you would be Tom, you are after all,' Elaine paused and flicked her eyes towards Anna, 'the smart one.' Elaine started to walk slowly around the living room. Whilst nobody moved, everybody kept their eyes fixed on the short woman.

'And all I wanted was the box, you know the one I mean.'

'It's in the basement.' Anna said, 'why don't you just go and get it?'

'Do you think I'm stupid?' Elaine shouted. 'I know about Mary's death trap of a basement! I wouldn't have bothered with that waste of space if I didn't.' Elaine, who was just a hair's breadth from Anna, gestured to the corpse nailed to the wall. Dean suddenly started gasping for air, the veins on his neck stood out as his face started to go a deep red.

'Give me the powder and I won't have to kill anyone.' Elaine smiled politely.

Anna punched her in the face. Hard.

Elaine stumbled backwards against the far wall. Her concentration broken, Dean slid to the floor gasping in air; Sam was at his side within moments.

Anna ducked down to the table, and rose with her katana in hand. Elaine had pulled herself to her feet whilst Tom moved around the walls of the room away from the demon.

'Fine, I'll just kill you then.' Elaine sneered. She ducked quickly as Anna spun her blade towards her, upper-cutting her as she came up. Anna slammed onto her back, landing next to Dean, knocked out cold. The demon moved towards the pair, but staggered when a shot rang out, the bullet digging into her arm. Sam was stood in the kitchen doorway, the smoking gun in his hand.

The gun flew out of his hand. Black eyes glared at him from the grey suited demon. Tom leapt from his position by the wall and grabbed the demon's arms. Elaine turned and threw Tom back into the wall as if he weighed nothing, then turned back to glance at Sam, managing to raise her arms before Sam smacked her with one of the chairs they had been sitting in playing poker.

She knocked the chair away and punched Sam hard in the stomach. With Sam keeled over, she grabbed him by the throat and smashed him through the table. The dark jar that had been resting on the edge of the table flew across the room, smashing at Dean's feet.

Elaine caught sight of the now exposed zip bag. Stepping over Sam, Elaine crouched down and picked up the bag with a smile.

'Thanks Dean.' She smiled at him. Dean pulled his hand out from behind Anna's back. He cocked the gun and smiled.

'Any time.' He fired. The back of her head exploded across the living room, destroying the demon's host.

Over the next hour, the four tidied the house as much as they were able, waiting for Samantha's return. Anna had a nasty headache, and Sam a few cuts on his back from where the table had splintered. Yulanda and what was left of Elaine were taken into the kitchen, covered in a blanket Anna had taken from upstairs.

Samantha eventually returned, and it was twilight before they properly explained what had happened.

'It was said that it was our duty to guard this,' Samantha said, gesturing at the powder, 'but it has been a curse. The moot agreed it would be better protected with you, and thank the Powers that they did.'

'You've been a great help, Samantha.' Sam reassured her. Samantha gave him a sad smile and nodded.

'Thank you for all you've done.' Samantha replied. 'You've routed an evil in our community, one that could have destroyed us.'

'Glad to help.' Dean chirped. Samantha held her hand out to Dean and shook his hand.

'Don't be shy.' She replied. Samantha handed the powder over to Tom and closed his hands around it.

'Protect it.' She said; Tom nodded.

'Right then,' Anna started, 'don't want to outstay our welcome and the hotel only serves dinner until 9.30.' Samantha laughed.

'You're in a hotel?' Dean asked her with a touch of jealousy.

'Yep, with a jacuzzi.' She said with a sly wink.

Samantha saw the four to the door and waved them goodbye. Walking back towards the Golden Cauldron, Sam looked over to Tom and Anna.

'So what are you guys going to do now?'

'We've still got some demon killin' to do.' Anna said.

'And a seal to save.' Tom added.

'That's us,' Dean said, pointing at his car, 'good luck, and save some demons for us.'

Anna shrugged, 'Maybe.' She smiled.

'Wait, Dean,' Sam said, 'we could do this one together. We did good back there.'

'Thanks Sammy, but we tend to work alone.' Anna said.

'We'll see you around, let's go Sammy!' Dean called over his shoulder as he walked towards his car.

Tom heard Sam mutter under his breath, 'Don't call me Sammy.' Tom and Anna watched the pair walk away down the quickly darkening street.

'You don't think pairing up would be a good plan?' Tom asked.

'Nope,' Anna shook her head, 'I got my partner.' She slapped him on the shoulder and walked around the corner to where they had left their car.

As they were buckling in, Dean pulled up next to the car with his window down.

'This is your car?' he whistled, 'she's a beauty!'

'That's an Impala!'

'1967.' Dean called back. Anna looked at Dean with a sly smile and revved her engine. The Impala gave an answering roar.

Without another word between Dean and Anna, the two cars roared down the street, racing for the first junction.

'Oh God...' shouted Tom.

'...there are two of them.' Muttered Sam.


End file.
